United In a Second Chance
by Genevieve Kelly
Summary: Regina casts one final curse to bring all of the fairytale realms together in a forgotten corner of Maine. Storybrooke has now become the United Realms, loved ones separated are united again, second chances for those seeking one are within reach, and Regina is the Good Queen. Everything seems perfect until unsuspected dangers arise, causing Rogers and Killian to fear the unknown.
1. Chapter 1

United In a Second Chance

Chapter One

Inside the Charmings' Royal Palace within the Wish Realm…

It was late at night, after a very long and trying day that ended in victory for each of the heroes upon the defeat of this realm's version of Rumplestiltskin, even though in doing so, it had sadly cost them the life of one of their own. Mr. Gold, Detective Weaver, Crocodile, the Dark One, Rumplestiltskin, or simply Rumple… whichever name most suited the long time villain turned hero best, had died in order to save the life one of their dearest friends and to rid all worlds of the Dark One for good. The darkness at last had been destroyed once and for all. And while no one knew for sure what had come of Gold's soul, each of the heroes chose to believe he too had earned his own happy ending. That he was at last reunited with his beloved wife like he so desperately longed to be.

 _After they'd been searching for Regina throughout the castle for a short while, Henry and his Wish Realm doppelganger, Sir Henry, finally found her standing out on one of the castle's balconies within the war room looking out over the mountains just beyond her view while she thought about Gold, as well as the future of her family and friends._

 _Regina heard her sons approach from behind her, but she didn't yet turn around to face them right away, as the boy she had adopted when he was a baby many years ago called out to her, "_ _Mom?"_

 _Before she could answer, the younger version of her son added in concern, "Everyone's been looking for you."_

 _"I just… I needed a moment," she downheartedly responded to them, then breathed in and out before she finally turned around to look at her boys._

 _"They uh… well, we want to know… what's next?" Henry apprehensively asked her, now that everything they had set out to accomplish was at last finished and the day was won._

 _Regina unleashed a weary sigh and then she replied, "There's a lot to figure out. But we all do need to go home. And… I found something here I think might be able to help us."_

 _Both Henrys glanced down at her hands, until she lifted up her right to reveal to them a scroll, which the older version of Henry knew all too well while she continued, "I need to cast one more curse."_

 _"You can't be serious," her older son uttered in frustration, with a roll of his eyes._

 _"I am," his mother assuredly stated again, as she quickly raised her hand to motion for them to be patient and to allow her a chance to explain while she looked between them. "The Dark Curse is the blueprint for something wonderful. What if, instead of crushing the heart of the thing I love most… everyone I love and who loves me… gifted a small piece of their own? And then maybe… just maybe… instead of separating everyone… this magic brings them together."_

 _Both Henry and the seventeen year old boy from the Wish Realm smiled at her as she continued once more, "What if I could bring all the realms to Storybrooke? There would be no more separation."_

 _She then stepped forward and took their hands in her own, while she also smiled as she added, "For once, we can… all be together. All the realms of story, secretly tucked away in a forgotten corner in Maine."_

 _"Operation… 'We Are Both' is a go," her adopted son answered at last, as he smiled at both his mother and his other self while he gently patted Sir Henry's back._

"I hoped you would feel as good about this as I did," Regina responded with a smile, then quickly grew somber once more. "Of course… this is going to take some time to plan. There's a lot of details to think about."

Her younger son looked between her and his other self as he said sternly, "Well… if we bring all the realms together, there's going to be all new villains running around. Like Cruella and Pan still trapped inside Rumplestiltskin's castle if we were to set them free… And who knows how many others."

She thought a moment and then she replied, "Oh… we will set Pan and Cruella free from their current prisons, but we have our own ways of dealing with villains like them. In Storybrooke, if villains attempt to hurt anyone, we lock them away within their own private cell beneath our hospital, with a magic dampening cuff around their wrists so they can't use their powers any further against us until they learn to behave. I can make sure we have plenty of cuffs available for us to use. Don't worry… if any of the villains try to wreak havoc, we'll deal with them when the time comes. We always do. Together."

"What about the timeline?" her adult son then asked her as well. "I mean… since Gothel brought us back to a separate time when no one at home even realized we were missing. At least not until today. But the timeline is still screwed up. Won't that be a bit confusing? For everyone."

"I think, I've figure out a way to solve that problem too," the Queen confidently answered once again, as she continued to look between her sons. "Both of our timelines will be merged together, though everyone's memories of both will remain intact. Also, with the Wish Realm coming over with us as well, it will mean there will be a large number of us all with doppelgangers too. Not just the two of you anymore, and Rogers. We'll just have to figure out some way to be able to tell everyone apart. Speaking of Rogers… I noticed that he disappeared once we arrived here. Sooner than I did. And he seemed a bit upset. I think I'm going to go try to find him. To make sure he's alright. Alice probably has, but…"

Adult Henry interrupted, "Go on. Go. Henry and I have some things we'd like to discuss too."

Regina smiled at them and nodded, then walked off in search of Hook from the Wish Realm, who had come to be a very good friend to her and Henry over the time since they met many years ago. However, she found Alice and Robin first as they were talking in the palace's Great Hall, while her niece and the pirate Captain's daughter were sitting together on the steps of the platform within the center of the room, where the Wish Realm versions of Snow White and Prince Charming were married and where the younger Henry had also been knighted.

When she walked into the room, Alice and Robin both quickly stood up while they faced her, as Robin's and Zelena's daughter asked, "Regina… have there been any thoughts about what's next for us? I don't know if you were wanting to return home to Hyperion Heights, or if you were thinking maybe Storybrooke…"

"Actually… Hyperion Heights is in our past and so is this Wish Realm," the girl's aunt responded, as she looked between both her and Alice too. "Unless of course if you come to visit some of your friends who might still be living here. Go talk to Henry and… well, Henry. They'll fill you in on what we'd like to do."

"Alice… have you seen your father?" Regina then asked her once she turned her head to look into the younger woman's eyes. "I saw him walk out not long after we arrived here and I was worried he might be having trouble dealing with…"

Rogers' daughter interrupted her, "With Weaver's death? I think he is. I mean… we all are of course, but he is even more so I think. I know Papa's grateful. More grateful than we'll ever know. And I know he's happy Weaver's been able to find his happy ending with Belle. It's just… I think, he's feeling guilty. He's sad because his friend and partner gave his life to save him. I also think Papa's worried he doesn't deserve to have been saved."

Regina nodded in understanding as she listened to her, then she finally spoke again remorsefully saying, "I think you're right. We villains turned heroes all feel that way. But I've known two different versions of Hook for a long time now and both of them are the same in the sense of their feelings towards themselves. They both struggle greatly with believing they're worthy of a happy ending. The original version of him still does even now to some degree. Do you happen to know where I might be able to find him? Your father… I mean."

"He told me he was going to return to his grotto, though I have no idea where it is," she sadly replied to her. "I've never seen it. He didn't want me to go with him. The truth is… I think he's ashamed."

"Don't worry, I think I have a way of finding him," the Queen then answered again, as she conjured Rogers' prosthetic hand into her own hands, and cast a locator spell over it so it would hopefully lead her to him. "I'll bring him back. I promise. Don't worry, Alice…"

When she looked between Hook's daughter and Robin again, she continued, "We're all going to be staying together at last. We won't have to be separated ever again."

Meanwhile, inside of Wish Hook's hideout…

Rogers was sitting down on the edge of the rocky platform which overlooked the ocean before him and had become lost in his thoughts. When he first arrived, he had opened up one of the chests full of odds and ends that he'd collected over the years before ever being whisked away to Hyperion Heights, then pulled out an old bottle of rum, thinking the drink might help to ease his guilt and his worry about the future. His future, and his place within it now that Alice was once again in his life, yet had a separate life of her own with Robin.

However, when he stared down at all pirates' choice of drink, he soon realized he no longer wanted it upon remembering what had come of him from having drank too much in trying to forget his pain, even though he partly yearned for the taste of rum. So instead, Hook kept a firm hold around the bottle, while he settled for staring out over the ocean and thought back to a few moments between himself and Weaver, both from their more recent lives and from within their past.

Years ago, in the New Enchanted Forest outside of Alice's and Robin's cabin…

Rogers remembered back to when he had come to Alice's home within the forest on the border of the clearing in order to check on his daughter, just to make sure that she was safe upon hearing what she'd recently been through with the Dark One, his darkness, and Dr. Facilier, only to find Gold was there already once again as well to do the same.

He could also see that whatever really happened, had caused Gold to once again become Rumplestiltskin, in his true Crocodile like form and almost immediately, Rogers could remember feeling guilty that Gold had sacrificed all his hard work at becoming a hero and to lose this version of him, all so he could protect Alice.

 _At last, their conversation played out in Rogers' mind as he saw himself sneak up on Rumple while he called out, "Dark One."_

 _Rumple was immediately startled, as he stumbled and turned around to face the man who had been his enemy for over two centuries. Or least, the man who was a familiar version of the pirate Captain he had known for so long. A man whom he no longer held any ill will towards like he held no ill will towards Killian's doppelganger either. Proving just how far Gold had come along in becoming a true hero._

 _"I heard about what you did for Alice and Robin," Hook softly continued on when the older man was facing him, until Rumple turned back again to keep watching his daughter, as well as Zelena's daughter too._

 _"All magic comes with a price," the Dark One flamboyantly responded to him, in his typical Rumplestiltskin like manner, until he immediately became solemn once more. "Guess it was finally my turn to pay."_

 _Hook shook his head regrettably and then he said, "Well… I just wanted to tell you everyone was right about you. You're not the Crocodile I knew."_

 _Rumple turned around again in surprise upon hearing Hook admit this about him to his face while he sincerely replied, "I owe you a great debt. If I can ever repay you, I will."_

 _"Dark One and a pirate… friends?" he then questioned the Captain once Hook reached out his hand for Rumple to shake in a friendly gesture, as a small token of his gratitude._

 _"Perhaps it's time for a new story," Hook genuinely answered him once again, then finally Gold accepted and shook his hand like he hoped he would while Hook smiled at him._

 _And when the Dark One then turned away like before, the pirate asked him out of concern, "So, what are you gonna do now?"_

 _Without looking back at him, the Dark One responded, "Do what Rumplestiltskin does best, of course…"_

 _"Spin, spin, spin!" the older man vibrantly added and spun around to face Hook again with a smug, yet sad smile underneath the mask he put back up in place to his own sadness before finally he just walked away from him. "Spin, spin, spin. Spin, spin, spin, spin, spin, spin, spin, spin, spin, spin…"_

Two days ago, inside the Hyperion Heights Police Station…

Rogers' thoughts changed, as he remembered back to escaping from the cavern beneath their city where he had been held prisoner the night before along with the girl he had since discovered was truly his daughter, having to leave Tilly behind once she had been forced into a magical trance that he couldn't have even begun to understand before Gothel's curse had been broken. Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed wildly in the skies, while sirens all around him wailed upon the rising storm wreaking havoc throughout all of Hyperion Heights.

 _"Where the hell have you been?" his partner had crossly asked him straightaway once the older detective slammed the phone receiver down the moment he entered the room, and sat down at his desk across from Weaver._

 _And then, just as crossly, Rogers heard himself reply to him, "I need you to tell me what the hell is going on in this town. I just spent the night tied up in the bowels of the city. And I saw… things. All right? So either I'm going crazy, or Eloise Gardner drugged me, or…"_

 _Before he could finish, Weaver suddenly answered, "Magic is real."_

 _"Magic is…?" the younger man started to question him as he struggled to understand and believe what his partner was trying to tell him, while thunder continued to rumble in the distance._

 _"Real," the senior detective quietly added in complete honesty, keeping his eyes firmly on the man who couldn't remember who he truly was. "All of it. Everything you read in Henry Mills' book. We are all from another realm. Eloise is a witch named Gothel, and what you saw her doing was magic. Now, if you want proof, I imagine anything I have to offer pales in comparison to what you witnessed last night."_

 _Rogers looked at him as he responded in frustration, "Yeah, you're right. What I witnessed last night strains reason. But so does what you are saying now."_

 _Detective Weaver resolutely replied, "The choice is simple… madness… or take a leap of faith. Believe your eyes. Believe me."_

 _"I'm not mad," he questionably answered him, as if he was trying to convince himself of the fact more so than his partner._

 _"I know," Rogers' partner then assured him and nodded._

 _At last, Rogers lowered his head and closed his eyes as he thought about all he had seen and of the truth revealed to him, then continued troublingly, "She said… Eloise said that Tilly is my daughter."_

 _When his friend raised his head to look at him again, Gold nodded his head again in understanding while he responded gently, "And you felt a connection to her from the moment you met. A connection that's troubled you ever since. Isn't that right?"_

 _"Aye," he fearfully replied. "And my heart… when I got near her, it was like I was being stabbed by a million knives."_

 _"Gothel poisoned your heart… as a punishment to keep you and your daughter separated," the senior detective despondently answered him again. "Now that she's bringing magic back, I guess the poison must have activated again."_

 _Rogers continued to struggle to process everything he was being told while he pieced everything together in his mind and murmured, "That must be why I couldn't rescue her."_

 _And then, Weaver's concern deepened as he asked in confusion, "Rescue her from what?"_

 _"I… I don't know," the younger detective wearily responded. "So the coven is locked in a ritual and Tilly is too. It's like they have her under some kind of spell."_

 _"Well… maybe we can break it," his partner then replied to him, and started to get back to his feet so he could stand. "Get her out of there."_

 _Rogers looked at him strangely as he questioned, "How?"_

 _He quickly stood up after the man before him without question when Weaver compelled him, "Follow me. I have an idea."_

 _"Hey… if what you say is true… who was… am I… in this other place?" he worryingly asked his partner however, before they could leave their office, and Weaver just chuckled when he turned back around momentarily to look at him once again, knowing that Rogers wouldn't believe him right then if he actually told him the truth._

 _"All you need to know right now is… you're a survivor," Gold smugly answered him by calling his closest friend that which Captain Hook always had been. "Captain."_

Just hours ago…

 _And then his memory changed once more, and this time Rogers saw himself trapped within the snowglobe while he and Gold fought to break through the snowglobe's indestructible glass by using his hook and the Dark One's dagger to try over and over, until the now powerless man dropped to his knees in defeat and called out to him in frustration, as he shivered from the cold threatening to end their lives the longer they remained inside, saying, "Our spirit's gonna break long before that glass."_

 _However, Rogers had refused to give up despite feeling just as cold, while he too kept his arms tucked close to his body for even the slightest ounce of warmth, and responded to him stubbornly, "We should try another area. There must be a weak spot."_

 _"There's that unshakable determination, however misguided," the older man admirably replied to him, without rising back to his feet again to try to follow after him. "That's the reason why I kept you as a partner, Detective. That and your good heart."_

 _"Well, seeing as we're allowing certain death to bring up secret truths, I do have to ask you… giving the amount of power that you once held… how come you never used it to destroy me?" Hook warily asked him the one question that he had kept locked in the back of his mind ever since he remembered waking up upon the curse being broken._

 _And much to his surprise, Gold looked up at him as he answered sincerely, "Because you were the closest thing I ever had to a friend."_

Back in the present, within Hook's grotto…

At last, Killian broke himself away from his memories while he struggled to shake them off and to think about anything other than the loss he felt from losing his closest friend and partner as well. Unfortunately, all he could think about instead was the old guilt from having failed to save his daughter from her tower years ago like he had promised her he would, on top of from having been forced to abandon her upon getting his heart poisoned from fighting a duel to defend the honor he never had as Captain Hook.

From behind him, Regina walked into the grotto through the entryway once his prosthetic hand led her there before she tucked it safely within her inside coat pocket, then she watched for a moment in silence as Rogers raised the bottle of rum still in his hand and tipped it upside down to dump out the alcohol into the waters before him. Sadly, she understood what him doing so meant for him. That her friend was feeling guilty like she and Alice worried he might be, and that he had begun to turn back to drinking now that he was his old self again, only to have stopped himself, for which she was grateful.

Finally, she started walking towards him slowly, until she suddenly bumped into one of the larger chests on the platform in front of her, not having paid close enough attention to the ground as she walked over. Hook was immediately startled upon hearing the disturbance from behind him and swiftly turned his body around to come face to face with her, much to his surprise upon seeing her now standing above him.

Regina raised her hands out and quickly apologized, "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean… I didn't mean to startle you. Please… don't get up."

"I wasn't expecting you to follow after me," he dejectedly said to her as she stepped forward, and gently laid one hand over his shoulder so that she could sit down on the edge of the platform beside him on his left side without clumsily toppling into the waters, then kept it there by way of offering him small comfort in what little way she could. "I never wanted you… or anyone, especially Alice… to see this place. I only ever brought Weave… Gold here, because we were in a fight against the true Dark One. Were it not for it being a necessity, I wouldn't have shown him either. Not because of the mess… although that most certainly would be reason enough. No… but because… this is nothing more than the place where I came to drown my sorrows. A place where I came to die when I lost all hope of ever being together with Alice again."

"And yet, you have been reunited with her again and your heart's been cured thanks to Gold giving his heart to you, so why aren't you back at the palace spending as much of your time with her as you can?" the Queen almost callously questioned him, until she suddenly realized she sounded harsher towards him than she intended to be by mentioning their friend's sacrifice when Rogers lowered his head and turned away from her. "Rogers, I'm… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…"

The Captain said quietly, "It isn't that I don't want to be there with my daughter. But the truth is, I needed some time alone to think about things. Also… Robin asked me if she could have some time alone with Alice. Earlier today, as your niece and I fought the guards guarding your prison to distract them so that Henry and the Charmings could free you, she asked me for Alice's hand in marriage. I think she's hoping to propose to her tonight."

She smiled happily while she exclaimed, "That's such wonderful news. But you know… she's worried about you. And seeing you looking so lost… I can see why she is. You're feeling guilty over Gold giving you his heart to save you. But you know, Rogers… he's finally truly happy again. He's back with Belle just like he's wanted since she died. He found his happy ending at last. I refuse to believe otherwise. And he selflessly gave his life to save his closest friend. He didn't have to tell me how he felt towards you. I could see it. He cared about you a great deal. Like he cared about all of us."

"You're right," Rogers sadly responded to her again, still without lifting his head to look at her. "But it's not only that. I mean… our loss is part of why I'm here. But this… this is my… second chance to be with Alice. My second chance to be the kind of father she needs me to be. Like I always should have been for her. I failed her once. What if I fail her again? What if… I fall back into old habits, or someone goads me into a fight by preying on my damned pride like before, and I fall for it. There is no honor in the man I was before Alice, but I knew so even when I agreed to fight Ahab in the duel that allowed for Gothel to poison my heart and yet… I still foolishly tried to protect that honor. And in the end… saving me cost Gold his life. I'm weak, Regina. And failing Alice again…"

"You won't fail her," Regina assuredly replied to him. "Just look at how much you've done for your daughter since you've found her again. Don't forget… you died to protect her yourself tonight. To save her from being pulled into Rumplestiltskin's horrible world he created just for her. You are a good man, Rogers. You've changed and have grown so much in the last few years since we've known you. Besides… you were alone back then. You're not alone anymore. And if Henry or I see you slipping… we'll smack you upside the head and get you to see it too."

When she saw him show a small smile while he kept facing downward, she smiled as well, then continued solemnly, "But I promise you… that will hardly be necessary. You poured that bottle of rum into the ocean just as I walked in here instead of drinking it, didn't you? The old you would have drank it and more. Believe in yourself, Rogers. We all do. Especially Alice."

Finally, Rogers raised his head to look over at her as she pulled his prosthetic hand again from her pocket, then Regina said to him, "I borrowed this so I could find you. With a locator spell. I wanted to let you know, I'm planning to cast one final curse that instead of tearing us apart to hurt us like all Dark Curses before, it will actually bring us together again. Everyone within every realm, brought together within Storybrooke so we will never have to be separated again. We can all finally be together. And this time, I won't have to crush the heart of someone I love most, or hurt anyone to do it, so long as you're willing to give a small piece of your own heart like the rest of us will."

"That sounds wonderful," he answered her in awe. "If that's what you need, of course you have it."

"Now that we're about to start a new chapter in our lives, which name would you like to continue to go by?" the Queen questioned him again, as she glanced down to look at the prosthetic she was still holding.

When he finally reached out to take it from her, Hook looked down at it while he responded somberly, "Hook is the moniker I gave myself when I was the man I despised. I'd like to begin again and this time… as Rogers. I've grown rather fond of it, I think. Besides… there will be two of us living in this… Storybrooke of yours once we're reunited with them. And I look forward to seeing Killian and Emma again, but I think that by going by the name of Killian Rogers, or just Rogers… and continuing to wear this hand will make it easier for people to tell us apart."

He and Regina laughed, until she was staring deep into his eyes and began to feel a strange sense of familiarity in Rogers. A feeling like she had first felt when she had been with Robin and Daniel too. Finally, she just smiled at him, before she finally leaned in to kiss his cheek. Then, he carefully stood from the ground and held out his hand for her to take so he could help her stand as well.

Rogers then whispered, "Thank you, Regina. For coming to find me. For making sure I was alright. But more importantly… for your friendship. You've no idea how much it means to me. Henry's too. Were it not for you both, or Gold… Killian's and Emma's efforts to save me then might have failed and I would have gone back to being my old self."

"You're still being much too hard on yourself," she remorsefully replied to him. "But you're welcome. Now… are you ready to head back?"

"Aye," the pirate Captain stated. "To see my daughter, and to help you however I can with this new non curse of yours."

At last, Regina and Rogers started to leave the grotto for what Hook hoped would be the last time, as he tossed the now empty glass bottle back inside the trunk containing hardly anything of worth for him to save. However, as he passed by another chest, he pulled out a smaller box containing the sea shell Ariel had given him so he could take it with him, before following the Queen back through the tunnel. And together, they returned to the Charmings' palace and to their loved ones waiting for them.


	2. Chapter 2

United In a Second Chance

Chapter Two

Somewhere within the woods surrounding Storybrooke…

A horse was being driven onward in a swift gallop through the forest's trees and brush that surrounded the town with Killian in control over the majestic animal's reins, while his wife sat on the horse's back behind him as Emma smiled, holding onto him with complete faith in her pirate. It was a beautiful day and since the two sheriffs took it off so they could spend it together while Snow and Charming watched over their daughter for them, Emma had asked Killian if they could go riding like he'd done for her back in Camelot many years ago now.

Killian was more than happy to oblige her, grateful to be able to spend the day with the love of his life, which they hadn't been able to do for quite some time, especially since Hope was born a few weeks earlier. So, together they set out on a picnic and rode until they came upon the hills just beyond the outer woods, where they could look out over all of Storybrooke. Emma had made and packed them a generous lunch and they borrowed a horse from the stables, then rode off together. Slowly at first while they talked, until Killian urged the horse to run.

And it ran for them for some time until they arrived, and Killian carefully helped his wife down while she took his hook and arm to dismount, then stood back far enough so that he could also dismount. They continued to walk a little bit further as they passed by the troll bridge and came upon their spot, then Emma began to set up for their picnic while Killian secured their animal by fastening its reins to a tree nearby before he walked over to join the woman he loved as he sat down in front of her on their blanket she had set up.

"That was even better than the last time we did this," the Savior softly said to him with a smile on her face, as she reached out to tenderly caress his cheek.

"Aye… that's probably because this time, you weren't trying so hard to quell the maddening voices inside your head under the darkness' influences," the Captain lightheartedly replied to her, causing Emma to laugh, until he too reached up to lay his hand gently over her own that she was touching his face with, then pulled her hand away while he lovingly continued to hold it and looked into her eyes once more. "This time… everything's perfect."

Emma nodded at him and then she answered, "You're right. And as much as I love our daughter, I couldn't be happier that Mom and Dad were thrilled to look after her for us today. It's been too long since we've both been able to spend a day alone together. I've missed this."

Her husband responded to her, "So have I. However, I do look forward to when Hope's a little older, so that she'll be able to join us for one of our picnics. Not to mention a day out on the Jolly Roger. I can't wait for her to be old enough so I can begin teaching her how to sail… like I've done for you, for Henry, and for Baelfire."

"And to learn how to swordfight as well," she quickly replied, then finished pulling out the food she packed for them so they could begin eating. "But I also can't wait for the day when Mom and I can teach her the ways of being the Princess she is as well. She can't be all pirate. I don't think my mother would ever forgive me for that."

"I agree," Killian lovingly answered her, then he raised his wife's hand to his lips to kiss it. "So long as she's anything like her mother, I'll be happy. Beautiful, independent, strong willed, brave, vivacious, kind and loving…"

Emma smiled again as she looked affectionately into his eyes and then responded, "All right sweet talker."

However, he didn't stop as he continued, "A hero to her people, and another man's Savior one day as you were and still are for me. Even if she were none of those things, I would still love her as much as I love you. But that's impossible. She was born from you. My only fear is, that she could suffer from the same darkness I did before I met you."

"Killian…" the woman who loved him whispered sadly, then Emma leaned in to kiss him so she could offer him comfort upon seeing him become saddened, until she pulled back from him a few minutes later to look up again into his eyes. "The only reason why that darkness was inside of you, was because you were abandoned like I was. But you weren't found on the side of the road, or in a tree and put through a magical wardrobe by your parents so you could escape an evil curse, then put into the foster care system. My parents still loved me and it killed them to let me go. I can take comfort in that because I know now that I was loved. And even all my years in foster care weren't all bad. Ingrid loved me too, even if I couldn't remember her for all those years. But Killian… you were sold by your father to other pirates and forced into a cruel life of slavery, where you suffered so much pain and heartache. Your father didn't love you like any father should love their child. You love Hope. With your whole heart."

"My heartache didn't give me the right to kill my father like I did either," Killian crossly replied to her again, revealing to her his anger he felt towards himself. "Liam let go of his hate for our father. He might not have forgiven him either, but he didn't allow his hate and pain consume him like I did. And I only allowed it to grow over the years, even when I was in the Royal Navy for a brief time. I was quick in siding with your parents upon trying to convince you to forgive them back when we learned of what they had done to Lily and Maleficent, and now I understand why. If there was even the slightest chance to remove my darkness from Hope's heart…"

She laid her hands over the sides of his face to get him to look up at her again and without a doubt she added, "That won't ever be necessary. On top of all that, you also suffered upon losing your brother to a King's ruthlessness and Pan's cruelty, as well as upon Milah's death and losing your hand at the hands of the Dark One. You being the man you used to be wasn't right, but I understand it. Which is why I was able to forgive you, Killian. That… and because you saw all the wrong in you and fought hard to become the good man I fell in love with. The good man who was buried inside of you all along. I only helped to find him again. You did all the hard work to change. I hope that our daughter will grow up to be a lot like her father too. Brave, loving, loyal, a warrior and true hero, extremely good looking… and even with a bit of a scoundrel and pirate in her too. She's going to be just fine, Killian. I know it. Because she was born from the true love you and I share, and she'll be loved her whole life."

Her pirate smiled, then he answered, "Aye, love. I believe you. Thank you for reminding me."

"Any time," the Savior responded to him, as she leaned up against him and felt her husband wrap his left arm around her body, then Emma reached out to pick up one of the halves of the sandwiches she made for them so she could begin to eat, while Killian did the same. "I miss Henry. Do you think he's doing all right? We haven't heard from him or Regina for such a long time. We don't even know what's become of them since Mom, Dad, and Zelena got back from their adventure over there in the Wish Realm to help save everyone. They obviously defeated Rumplestiltskin… since we're all still here and happy together, but… Do you suppose we'll see them again sometime soon?"

"I do hope so," he gently stated. "I'm sure everyone's fine. Besides… the other me is with them as well. And thanks to you just now, I choose to believe his love for his own daughter will keep him from falling back down that dark path again. Like I've continued to hope for him."

Emma was about to say something more, when all of a sudden, the wind all around them began to pick up and the air crackled with the sounds of thunder looming above them in the distance until it drew closer and closer. Suddenly, lightning could be seen within the skies as well. She and her husband immediately stood upon recognizing the signs of what they feared was the coming of a new curse, as Killian held her close to protect the love of his life while she held him back, both knowing that their parents were doing the same for their daughter.

And when the dark purple cloud appeared as it rose up above them, Emma tightened her grip around Killian's body and his hand while she fearfully cried out, "Killian!"

The man she loved with all her heart stalwartly called back, "We'll be alright, Emma! I promise. I'm here. Whatever happens, don't let go of me."

"I won't!" she shouted, then she swiftly spun around and collapsed into his arms against his chest while he held her vast, as they both closed their eyes once the cloud finally washed over them.

At last, when the cloud lifted minutes later, they opened their eyes again as they struggled to clear their haze, then worryingly looked upon one another in the hope that they would still see each other for who they truly were, and not under the influence of either false memories or stolen memories. Finally, Killian just smiled down at his wife, then he leaned in to kiss her upon seeing her recognition of him in her eyes, like she saw of her in his as well and tenderly kissed him in return.

Then, they turned around and looked out before them. And when they did, they immediately became shocked to discover Storybrooke had suddenly grown so much larger, as they looked out in the distance where they could normally only see their small town, but also saw a number of realms they've visited, as well as not, had suddenly become merged into one kingdom. From the Enchanted Forest and Camelot, to the Wish Realm, the Land of Untold Stories, Agrabah, Arendelle, Wonderland, Neverland, and Oz too. Among even a number of the others.

And then, all of a sudden, after he too had come over within Regina's final curse along with the others with him, Henry stepped up from behind his mother and stepfather upon seeing them standing there looking out at the united realms and he spoke out to them both happily saying, "Mom! Killian!"

"Henry?" the Savior uttered in disbelief once she and Killian spun around upon hearing his voice, then smiled as she swiftly ran into her son's open arms to embrace him, followed closely by Hook, who reached out to greet him as well. "Henry! What? But how… how are you even here?"

"How are all of you here?" Emma continued to question, as she looked beyond him and saw Regina, Hook from the Wish Realm, a young girl standing beside him whom she and Killian could only assume was his daughter, Zelena's daughter Robin, Zelena and another stranger standing beside her with whom she was holding hands with, a beautiful woman and young girl who walked up to stand beside Henry they could only assume were Cinderella and their own daughter, and lastly… the younger version of Henry, whom Emma remembered she loved from the Wish Realm as well. "The curse… that was you?"

Regina stepped forward to stand with them and her son, keeping her eyes between Emma and Hook while she replied, "Yes, but don't worry, Miss Swan… or Mrs. Jones rather. Nothing but wonderful things have changed in this final curse. Which isn't even a curse really. I cast it, so we could at last become united together in one small hidden corner of the world. The Land Without Magic will continue to remain unaware of our existence, while we'll all be free to come and go as we please… without the risk of losing ourselves, or becoming a tree, or whatever else the protection spells over the town line in the past might have done to us for trying to leave. All of us, from every realm of fairytales ever known. And this isn't even everyone. There are so many more people who will have come over with us. I just assume they'll be popping up all over like Pan's curse did to us before when we were returned to the Enchanted Forest. But… we can explain everything else later. I believe, introductions are in order. Some you already know, but for those you don't… Henry?"

Adult Henry smiled back at his adopted mother, then he looked between Emma and Killian again before turning to his wife while he began, "Mom… Killian… I'd like to introduce you to my wife, Ella… or Cinderella. She definitely prefers Ella."

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you," Ella sincerely said to them, as she reached out her hand to them in greeting. "Henry's told us much about you both."

"And this young woman here… is our daughter, Lucy," Henry continued again when he and then Ella looked down upon the girl who was now ten years old.

Lucy immediately moved in to hug her new grandmother and grandfather while they both looked down on her, and between their son and new daughter happily as well. Henry and Ella smiled, then Lucy finally stepped back so that further introductions could be made when they all turned to look around at the others.

Rogers stepped forward next as he reached out to shake his other self's hand when Killian reached out to him, then spoke genuinely saying, "It's good to you again, old friend. And still doing well."

"Better… it would seem," he quickly added upon looking over at Alice when she too moved forward to stand beside her father and took Killian's hand as well. "This is your daughter then?"

"Aye," Hook from the Wish Realm proudly answered him. "This is Alice. Named after my mother. Our mother. And thanks to Gold, my heart's finally been cured. Alice… this is Killian. My other self here in Storybrooke. And his wife, Emma. It's thanks to them that I first found myself back on the right path."

Alice smiled at them as she looked between her father's other self and the Savior, then responded sincerely, "Thank you. Thank you so much for taking care of my Papa."

Emma smiled back while she replied, "You're welcome. He deserved a second chance just like my husband did. Your father's a good man."

"That's what I've told him," the young woman answered, as she glanced back towards her father. "As often as I have to when I can tell he's doubting himself."

"We can all talk later," Regina then called out again upon being in a hurry to get the introductions over with, then everyone turned when Sir Henry moved forward and then wrapped his arms around Emma in a hug, since the last time he had seen her, he believed she had been kidnapped by the Evil Queen. "Emma… you remember our son from the Wish Realm. A lot's happened since we've parted."

The Savior looked between him and Regina while she responded, "After Mom and Dad got back home from the Enchanted Forest in the Wish Realm years ago, or… I guess it would be just days ago for you… The timeline's going to be confusing, isn't it? Anyways… they told us everything that happened. With Rumplestiltskin over there that is. And you too, Henry. It's really good to see you again, kid."

He laughed and then replied, "You too. It's good to see you're still alive. I was afraid you'd be dead. And I… I'm sorry that I let Rumplestiltskin get into my head. That I believed the worst and nearly killed Regina. I'm sorry I disappointed you."

"All that matters, is that you saw through your mistakes and made up for them by doing the right thing," Killian assuredly answered him before Emma could. "Emma just finished reminding me of the exact same thing. It's good to finally meet you, lad."

"You too," Sir Henry excitedly replied. "Another Captain Hook. So cool."

Then finally, Zelena stepped up as she pulled her fiancé along with her, then stated, "So I suppose it's my turn? Of course you both remember my daughter, Robin? Emma… Captain... I would like you to meet my fiancé, Chad. And no… he isn't from the fairytale world, so please be gentle with him."

When Chad reached out to shake Emma's and Killian's hands like everyone else, the former Wicked Witch continued to explain, "Chad and I met and fell in love while I was still living as Kelly… my cursed persona. When I became me again… Well, things happened and as circumstances would have it, I was eventually able to share with him who I really am and where we're all from. Surprisingly, he took it all quite well. And I couldn't very well say goodbye to him in order to remain living my life. I love him far too much. Nor could I forget my true self and live like a normal person either. I'm far from normal. Thankfully, he loves me as much as I love him, and he's decided to stay with me in my world. No matter the risks."

"Well… you're not the first outsider we've ever had here in Storybrooke who's discovered our secrets, but since you'll be staying, you will definitely be the first to live among all of us," the Savior said while she smiled at him, then she greeted him as well. "And you're more than welcome. I'm Emma, daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming."

"And this is my husband," she added when she turned to look between him and the newcomer, then to Rogers as well. "Killian Jones, also known to most here as Hook. Captain Hook. Like our friend here from the Wish Realm as well. Congratulations to you both. On your engagement that is."

Rogers then spoke again apprehensively as he looked over at his other self saying, "And just to help make things a bit easier… I'd prefer to continue to go by the name in which I was cursed under… Rogers. It's Killian Rogers, but simply Rogers is perfectly fine. Plus, I'll be continuing to wear my prosthetic hand. It suits me better than our hook does anymore. And this way, people will be able to tell which of us they'll be talking to or walking past on the streets."

Killian answered him, "So long as you're absolutely certain it's what you'll be most comfortable with."

"I am," the former detective responded. "Thank you. And back in Hyperion Heights, I was a detective along with Weaver… Or, our Rumplestiltskin. So, if you're in need of another law enforcement officer around here…"

"Actually… with Storybrooke suddenly becoming so big with all of these new realms joined with us, I'm sure we'll be needing some new sheriffs and deputies to help out," Emma fervently replied. "Thank you. Right now, Killian and I are the only sheriffs after my father retired to become a farmer again. So… You would absolutely be a welcome partner."

While Emma spoke, Killian looked around at those surrounding him, then turned back to his other self, Henry, and Regina as he asked, "Where's Gold?"

Rogers looked down guiltily despite his talk with Regina a few nights ago, as he raised his hand over his heart and then sadly answered, "I'm afraid… He's gone. Gold gave his life in order to save mine."

"After I risked my life to save my daughter from the other Rumplestiltskin's plans and died…" he continued on, as Alice reached out to take his hand to offer her father comfort while he spoke about their friend's sacrifice, knowing how much Weaver's death was still troubling him. "Gold gave me his heart, because the poison in mine finally won. He cured me, but he died instead."

"I can't believe it," Killian responded out of disbelief, and with remorse as well. "That my oldest enemy would have ever become one of my own closest friends after all that we've been through throughout two hundred years, let alone that he would give his life to save another version of myself… I'm so sorry."

Finally, Regina spoke gently upon seeing the sadness that had fallen over everyone as she said again, "There's plenty more we need to talk about. But why don't we head into town where we can all talk together. Perhaps to Granny's. I would love some of her lasagna, even if it isn't as good as my own. Besides… I can't wait to see everyone else again."

Emma smiled back at her friend, then she stated, "That sounds great. Welcome home."


	3. Chapter 3

United In a Second Chance

Chapter Three

Sometime later, within the newly United Realms…

A few weeks passed since the final dark curse to reunite everyone together in Storybrooke was cast, and so much changed for all who lived throughout each of the kingdoms and what was once just a small town in Maine. Snow White and Charming missed their former royal lives, so they returned to being Prince and Princess, and took up residency within the Royal Castle once more with their son, Prince Neal. Regina on the other hand, didn't go back to being Mayor, yet she wasn't sure where life would take her next. Little did she know that something wonderful lied ahead for her. As for Zelena, she happily returned to Oz to rule righteously over her own kingdom with her fiancé and soon to be husband by her side.

Both women kept themselves busy since their return while they helped to build up the United Realms, and yet they also continued to find time to work together at their bar from Hyperion Heights, which they had brought over with them, wanting to hold tightly to the bond which they had formed upon owning Kelly & Roni's Pub. Henry, Ella, Robin, Alice, and Remy helped to run it the rest of the time when they couldn't.

And Rogers wasn't the only newly appointed law enforcement officer to join with Emma and Killian. The pirate from the Wish Realm became sheriff beneath them, which helped free up more of their time so they could spend it at home with their daughter, while Henry from the Wish Realm became a deputy, along with Smee, who continued to remain loyal to Hook and now his Captain's doppelganger as well. Smee's other self remained the Captain of their Jolly Roger, despite once again living within the same land as his own Captain. Rogers assured him he was happy on land, far away from the pirate's life.

Alice and Robin were now engaged and happily living together once more somewhere deep in the woods, inside their cabin which had come over with them in the curse. Queen Tiana and Prince Naveen ruled over their kingdom in the Bayou, where they also opened up their own Cajun restaurant. August's doppelganger met his other self, and Pinocchio was reunited with his father once again. Now, the three of them worked together as the Realms' handymen and woodcarvers. And Red was happily reunited again with Granny, as she came home along with Dorothy and Mulan, introducing the girl from Kansas as her wife.

Wish Blue was finally freed from her prison created for her by the evil Rumplestiltskin and now worked closely with Blue and the rest of the fairies, both from this land and the Wish Realm. The dwarfs from Storybrooke and the Wish Realm all became friends, and they continued to work in the mines for the diamonds to make fairy dust, as well as in the fields to help Tiny to continue making crops of not only magic beans, but foods and vegetables too. And lastly, the former Evil Queen and Robin Hood of the Wish Realm were happily married and continued to live in their castle within the Enchanted Forest.

Many changes were made throughout all of the kingdoms, and yet a number of things remained the same as before as well. However, the biggest change was yet to come. Over the weeks, Snow and David worked to create a council in which they could discuss state affairs and other business, whereupon each of the kingdoms rulers were appointed, including Regina and Zelena, along with Emma and Killian, Henry and Ella, Granny and Red, Grumpy and Doc, and the Blue Fairy of Storybrooke.

However, one day, Snow and Charming had called a secret meeting with each of the members and a number of people not upon the council, to which they didn't invite Regina so they could discuss electing her Queen of the United Realms, and everyone unanimously agreed she was the perfect choice to lead them all. And finally, the day of her coronation arrived, as Zelena and Henry were put in charge of getting her dressed in her finest gown and to the Royal Castle without spoiling the big surprise waiting for her.

 _Once the three of them entered the palace's foyer as Regina stood between her sister and her adult son, they started walking towards the Great Hall for what Regina believed was just another council meeting called at the last minute, until finally the Queen looked over at her sister again while she questioned her, "All right, Zelena._ _What is going on? I mean… obviously this isn't a meeting about state affairs."_

 _She then glanced over at Henry again when he stated mockingly, "Oh… she catches on quick."_

 _"_ _Shush, Henry," Zelena smugly retorted as she too looked at her nephew, while Regina just laughed at the both of them. "Remember 'Operation Keep Your Trap Closed'?"_

 _"_ _Mom…" Sir Henry then called out to her, as Regina raised her head up to look ahead of her at the younger version of her son in surprise when he spoke out to her, as he stood in front of the doors leading into the Great Hall, then he simply smiled at her without another word._

 _The Queen finally looked again between her two sons and her sister again while she asked, "All right, everyone… What's going on?"_

 _However, no one answered her. Instead, Henry just lifted his arm out for her to take as Zelena suddenly vanished in a cloud of green smoke to return to those waiting inside, waiting for their soon to be elected Queen to arrive. Henry then led his adopted mother onward, as the younger man pushed open the doors for them to enter. All of a sudden, Regina was completely taken aback upon seeing all of her family, friends, and loved ones alike, all waiting inside until she appeared, and everyone began to clap in applause when they turned to look at her._

 _As both Henrys led her inside and down the aisle leading towards where Snow and Charming waited by for her to join them within the center of the room, Regina looked around at everyone all elegantly dressed, until her eyes landed on Ella, Lucy, and Zelena again, as well as on Rogers, who smiled at her adoringly while they stood in the front of the room applauding her like everyone else._

 _Finally, Regina questioned the Prince and Princess standing before her sternly, "What is this?"_

 _"_ _This is for you," Snow happily responded to her, as Regina only continued to look at her in confusion. "All the realms have been united. And now… we need someone to lead us."_

 _"_ _The people have decided… Your Majesty," David steadfastly continued._

 _He then turned to their son, who stood on his other side and gently pushed him forward so he could join Sir Henry in the crowd as he whispered, "Okay, Neal. Go on down."_

 _Regina stepped up onto the platform steps while she continued to look between her stepdaughter and her husband feeling overwhelmed, then Snow opened up a box that was handed to her to reveal a glamorous silver crown made of diamonds and she spoke again genuinely saying, "They want it to be you, Regina."_

 _The Queen momentarily stared between the Charmings in disbelief as David simply nodded. And then, Regina finally turned again to face everyone else who had arrived for her coronation to celebrate her becoming their new Queen. Alice and Robin smiled up at her, as did Rogers from beside his daughter, then he nodded. She looked at her son from the Wish Realm and Sir Henry nodded, then she continued to seek out those she loved, as she saw Zelena, Henry and Ella, and Lucy, all of whom smiled in approval too. However, there were still two faces Regina had yet to see among the crowd._

 _"_ _Are you ready?" David suddenly called out to regain her attention once more, after he took the box to hold it for his wife while Snow lifted the crown out so she could place it on the head of their new Queen._

 _"_ _Uh… Is everyone here?" Regina quietly asked them, upon wondering where Emma and Killian were._

 _Snow inhaled deeply when she understood her stepmother's hesitation and then she whispered, "I think the baby was fussy."_

 _Regina chuckled as she then nodded and replied, "Oh… okay."_

 _"_ _Shall we begin?" the younger woman quietly asked her, then stood tall to continue and spoke loudly for everyone to hear her. "Do you, Regina Mills, accept the role of the first elected ruler of the newly United Realms?"_

 _"_ _I do," their new Queen graciously and happily answered her._

 _David smiled, then motioned for her to bow so the crown could be placed on her head as he responded, "Excellent. So, if you please."_

 _As Snow raised the crown above Regina's head as she prepared to put it on her, she continued, "I now crown you…"_

 _All of a sudden, they were interrupted when the doors of the Great Hall opened wide as Emma and Killian came running in, while the Captain held their daughter in his arm and with his hand, keeping his hook down at his side to prevent hurting his daughter with it, then the Savior worked to regain control of her breathing before she called out, "Sorry… I'm late."_

 _"_ _Emma," Regina happily replied to her with a sigh of relief upon seeing she and Killian could make it in time after all._

 _"_ _You didn't think I was gonna miss this, did you?" Emma haughtily answered her as she and her husband made their way to the front of the room in order to join with their family._

 _Upon seeing her son, she then immediately raised her arms to embrace him while she happily spoke out, "Aww… hey, kid!"_

 _"_ _Hi, Mom," he responded in return as he hugged her back, then they both turned towards Killian._

 _"_ _You want to give your stepfather a hand there?" she then prodded him, not really realizing she had made a pun that indicated Killian was missing a hand._

 _Henry quickly replied, "Oh… yeah."_

 _However, Killian caught his wife's jest and so he added humorously, "Pun intended. Pun always intended. Isn't that the case?"_

 _"_ _Sorry," she quickly apologized and chuckled, as their daughter began to coo upon waking from her nap._

 _"_ _So, how is little Hope?" Henry asked his parents while he took her into his arms from his stepfather and looked down upon her face as Hope smiled up at him. "Aww… Is she ready for her first coronation?"_

 _"_ _If we're all here, can I please continue?" Snow then whispered again to her family loudly._

 _Emma looked up at her and apologized, "Sorry, Mom. Sorry."_

 _Hope continued to coo in Henry's arms, while the Princess then raised the crown above Regina's head once more to continue on and exclaimed, "Okay, then. Regina Mills… I now crown you… The Good Queen. Long may she reign!"_

 _Upon Regina being crowned at last, everyone happily began to cheer and applaud her once again, as the newly elected Queen smiled at Snow and David, then turned to look out at her loved ones, and finally her people as well. It was a happy day for Storybrooke and the newly United Realms. However, when she tuned back around to give Snow and David a hug, they properly declined, as the Prince and Princess only bowed to her to show their respect, then David took her hand to walk her out to join with their people._

 _"_ _Hey," Queen Regina whispered to her son, as Sir Henry of the Wish Realm was the first to walk up to her to hug and congratulate his mother, then she continued to hug the others within her family, beginning with Lucy, Ella, and finally her adopted son she'd known his whole life._

 _"_ _Hi, you," she then cooed to Hope upon seeing her closest friends' daughter looking up at her from his arms._

 _And finally, Regina turned to both Emma and Killian, as the Savior smiled at her and hugged her too while she happily stated, "Madame Mayor."_

 _And when the Queen turned to hug Killian as well, he smiled at her, then corrected his wife by saying, "Uh… I think you'll find it's… 'Your Majesty."_

 _"_ _Well… she'll always be 'Madame Mayor' to me," Emma answered, as she looked at Regina when she stood again before them. "This is it. It's your happy ending."_

 _"_ _Mm… no, Miss Swan, not even close," Queen Regina responded to her, not liking the way 'happy ending' sounded to her any longer. "This isn't an ending. I hate endings. Because then your story is done."_

 _She then looked out among everyone before her and then she added, "And everyone here… well, their stories are far from over."_

 _Emma looked over at her husband as she patted his arm, and he smiled back at her while she replied, "Well… a happy beginning then."_

 _"_ _I'd like to call it…" Regina began, but then she stopped a moment to think about what their happiness really was, as she turned her head to look over at Rogers again upon remembering back to their conversation they had weeks earlier before the curse brought them to together, and when she faced Emma once more, she finally answered, "…a second chance."_

 _"_ _I thought my story came to an end a long time ago, and then new people came into my life… People who gave me a second chance," their Queen at last continued again once she returned to the platform again, to stand before her people so she could address them. "I can't wait to see what's store for me next. Well, for everyone. I refuse to believe there won't be more adventures… More love… More family… And yes… there will be more loss because that's just a part of life. And in the end, we can get past it all… with hope."_

When Regina finished, everyone clapped and cheered for their Queen once again as she looked out at them with a smile. Emma and Killian smiled up at her while the Captain tenderly held his wife close. Then, as Hope cooed within her mother's arms, they lovingly laid their heads together and smiled down upon their daughter. Hope's name had come from the feeling which emulated throughout the Savior's family, and now throughout all of Storybrooke, upon the beginning of everyone's second chance.


	4. Chapter 4

United In a Second Chance

Chapter Four

Upon arriving in Storybrooke, Rogers had begun living in a room at Granny's Bed and Breakfast despite having been offered a room within both the Royal Castle, as well as in Queen Regina's castle. However, he declined both their offers, preferring to live in a smaller, more private place on account of him never having many possessions. Not when he still lived as a pirate aboard the Jolly Roger, in the tower with his daughter the first twelve or so years of her life, within his grotto, or even while living in his apartment in Hyperion Heights.

However, when he began to go through his things he brought over in the curse with him from his apartment in Hyperion Heights nights later, as well as from his grotto, the former detective now sheriff was shocked when he found a copy of the deed to Gold's home he shared here in Storybrooke with his wife lying within the bottom of the box containing Ariel's shell now signed over to him.

Rogers thought back to when he and Weaver had gone to his grotto to seek out Ariel for help against Rumplestiltskin, and yet he couldn't recall having seen his friend leave something behind for him. But then, he hadn't been keeping his eyes on him either, so his partner could have done so at any time. And the younger man didn't know so at the time, but now he understood that no matter what might have happened that night, Gold was never planning on surviving their fight against the true Dark One.

Rogers knew that he and Gold had become good friends before Gothel's curse and then after they came to trust one another as partners. Yet he expected that if his friend were to leave something as valuable such as his home to anyone, he would have left it to either Gideon, or to Henry and Ella since Henry was his grandson. However, both of his surviving family members had their own places and were happy in their own lives. Therefore, neither of them protested that Rogers accept the house as his own like Gold wanted for him.

So, two nights after Regina's coronation, Rogers spent the remainder of the evening packing away what remained behind of his friend's and his wife's things, as well as moving his few things in. Alice came by with Robin to help him, and so did Henry for which he was grateful. Then, once they finished, they went out for dinner along with Regina and Zelena at Tony's.

It was late when everyone finally said goodnight to return home. Rogers was the last to leave as he paid the owner of the restaurant for their meal, then finally left as well to begin his walk back to his new home. While he walked, he passed a number of people on the streets and nothing seemed out of place as he did so.

However, when he walked around the corner next to Gold's Pawnshop, something suddenly felt off to him, when a mysterious woman bumped into him as she passed by him. He paused a moment to watch after her while she just kept walking on without turning back to look at him, or even to apologize for striking him, as she kept her head and face covered by the hood of her cloak she wore. Finally, he shrugged off his sense of uneasiness and continued walking on himself until he reached his house, locked the door, and at last fell into bed.

Rogers hadn't slept well most nights for a very long time since he had first met Gothel so long ago. He never told Alice he slept less than even she did because of his own nightmares, and because he kept his guard up for any signs of trouble. And after Gothel poisoned his heart, his guilt also kept him awake most nights.

It wasn't until after he became cured of the poison over his heart through Gold's sacrifice that he was finally able to have his first full night of sleep without awakening despite feeling guilt over his partner's death, because he was finally free to hold his daughter, Alice was able to comfort him without her hurting him, and Gothel was gone.

However, it wasn't long after he had fallen asleep, that a new nightmare arose within his mind, as Rogers strangely found himself back in an interrogation room within Hyperion Heights' police station while he stood against a wall across from Eloise Gardener back when he had interrogated her about Victoria Belfrey's death and their neighborhood's serial killer after the frightening killings of two women not known to him at the time to have been witches.

 _An old painting of his that had come over to the city within the curse sat on the table between him and Gothel, known only to him then as Eloise Gardener, then he finally heard himself speak while he uneasily stated, "My first painting._ _Happy now?"_

 _Eloise studied his painting closely as she sincerely answered him, "It's beautiful._ _The calm before the storm."_

 _"_ _Tell me about the killer," the younger detective had crossly requested from her when she turned her head to look over at him._

 _"_ _You don't get answers until you give some," she calmly responded within a demanding tone._ _"_ _Now, come here. Look at the painting, and tell me what it really means to you."_

 _Rogers remembered turning his head to look up at the security camera within the room knowing Weaver had been outside in their office watching over his interrogation of the coven leader, then he finally took a seat in the chair across from her as he sighed, and looked down at his painting of a ship at sea, before he answered her despondently, "Fine._ _As a child, I loved the ocean._ _I always wanted to visit._ _Then I grew up, forgot about it, and it's a distant memory._ _That's all."_

 _The villainess looked at him coolly as she continued to goad him, "It must have been quite a day when you finally got out there._ _You must have felt like a real sea captain."_

 _"_ _Actually, I've still never been," he sternly replied._

 _"_ _But the ocean's so close," she responded to him, knowing exactly what she needed to say in order to get him to admit what she wanted to hear from him._ _"_ _I mean, why… why not grab your special someone and go touch the sea?"_

 _Upon touching a nerve, Rogers suddenly lost his temper as he shouted, "Because I don't have anyone! Is that what you want to hear?!"_

 _Eloise smiled at him smugly as he turned his head away in disappointment with himself and then she cruelly answered again, "Yes. They say all great art starts with pain. And now I know yours. The killer is also grappling with pain… an unfillable void, if you will. And just like you, they're looking for a way to express that pain. To externalize it in a way that only makes sense to them. Both the doctor and the baker were given a gift before they were attacked… a heart shaped candy box filled with chocolate marzipan truffles."_

 _"_ _That's quite specific," Rogers then replied to her again, seeking more information from her that might help to explain why._

 _"_ _Everyone has their obsessions," the witch continued. "So… if you want to find the killer, all you have to do is follow your heart."_

And then all of a sudden his nightmare changed, when his fear _brought the Captain back to many years earlier on the most painful night of his life to the one moment which haunted him far more than any other, as he was once again reminded of his deepest regret while he saw himself return to the tower where his daughter remained a prisoner because of both of her parents, then he climbed up it to enter the window into the room in which he and Alice once lived together._

 _Inside, Alice sat in front of her easel while she painted on the canvas before her until Hook knocked his hook up against the wood of the wall beside him as he entered with his bag over his back and smiled when she saw him while she happily exclaimed, "Papa! I was starting to worry."_

 _When he stepped down from the window and walked around the painting his daughter was working on, he looked over at her lovingly and gently responded her, "There's no need to worry, Starfish. I'm here now."_

 _"I have something in here that can smash this tower to pieces," he continued once he pulled his bag in front of him, then pulled out the magical weapon the Captain had left to seek out… Maui's fishhook made of what appeared to be ivory, or even bone, and held it up for Alice to see._

 _Alice smiled and stood from her stool as she set her paints and paintbrush down, before she turned back to her father and walked over to embrace him. However, in the moment they both touched, Hook gasped in pain as he was suddenly flung back heavily against the wall behind him by some magical force not yet known to them, then he collapsed against the floor in a heap._

 _"Papa?" she questioned fearfully upon him being hurt and hearing him exhale sharply before crying out in agony._

 _As he raised his hand over his heart in his chest, Hook painfully screamed, "Aah!"_

 _She started to run towards her father, until another dark force then overwhelmed her as well, as Alice swiftly took several steps back and grabbed hold of her wrist in pain when a brand suddenly became burned into her skin while she whimpered, "Ohh! What's happening?"_

 _"I… I don't know," Hook answered with heavy strain in his voice while he continued to writhe against the anguish over his heart._

 _"But I do," another voice replied from behind Alice, as she immediately spun around to see the witch she didn't yet know then to be her mother standing before them._

 _Hook glared up at the villainess from the floor as he asked weakly, "What did you do to me?"_

 _Gothel cruelly responded, "No less than you deserve. You're poisoned now, and it will corrupt your heart every time Alice draws near. You've both been marked."_

 _"Please don't do this," Alice then pleaded with the witch, as Gothel turned her head to finally look at her daughter. "He's my father. He's a good man."_

 _"Not good enough," the nymph retorted darkly when she turned her eyes back on the man who shunned her years ago. "Your father went on a little detour because there's more important things to him than his daughter. He fought a duel for his precious honor."_

 _While Hook continued to breathe shakily as the pain burned within his chest, Alice turned around again to look down at him with disappointment in her eyes and then sadly she said, "You didn't come right back. You promised me."_

 _He struggled to keep his eyes on his daughter while he regretfully answered, "I only stopped for a moment. I swear."_

 _"How did you do this to me?" the Captain then asked the witch as he continued to breathe heavily._

 _"I simply made sure the bullet was poisoned," Gothel replied darkly, while Alice turned back to her as she spoke. "Your pride did the rest."_

 _Gothel then raised her hands and used her power to poof Hook away from the tower within a thick cloud of smoke, as the young girl watched him vanish from before her despite her effort to run to him and she fearfully cried out, "Papa!"_

 _She sighed in worry, then uttered again, "Papa."_

 _When the dark cloud of magic surrounding him cleared once more, Hook struggled to move and rise to his feet. He discovered what had happened upon finding himself upon the ground outside just below the tower which now loomed over him, then turned his head weakly as Gothel appeared before him again._

 _"You can't keep me from her," he shouted out at her angrily, while he continued to try to rise despite feeling so weak and in such pain. "I will get her out."_

 _"No," the witch responded plainly, yet cruelly once more as she bent down to pick up the fishhook he had collected in hope of freeing his daughter from the tower so she could take it away from him. "You will fail her again and again. You might as well go back to the tavern and have another drink."_

 _All of a sudden, from the room high above them, Alice cried out to him, "Papa, where are you?! Save me!"_

 _Hook made another effort to hurtle himself towards Gothel to try to fight her for the magical weapon only to fail, while she looked down on the pirate captain at her feet and articulated coldly, "Such a heartbreaking cry for help."_

 _"Papa… please help!" his daughter pleaded from above them._

 _"I couldn't let you free her," the witch continued cruelly. "And now you never will."_

 _Rogers struggled desperately to wake from the terrors of his nightmares suddenly plaguing him, like they were being forced into his mind as if by dark magic. Unfortunately, they only continued when another arose and this time, he watched as he and Tilly entered the old theater within Hyperion Heights on the night in which they had both been taken captive by Gothel and her witch coven._

 _The moment he and Tilly walked inside, the detective saw Desk Sergeant Ryce standing inside the lobby in front of them with a strange smile on his face, and Rogers asked him concerningly, "What are you doing here, mate? Is something wrong?"_

 _Ryce just shrugged and continued smiling as he answered, "Nothing's wrong. In fact, it's all going as planned."_

 _"Hey!" Rogers then immediately cried out angrily, as well as with fear upon hearing Tilly scream once a number of women in dark cloaks with their hoods pulled up over their heads suddenly appeared when they swiftly grabbed hold of the young woman in his charge and him to keep him from helping her, although he lashed out against them the best he could while he struck Ryce across the face, only to become apprehended himself at last despite his efforts. "Where are you taking her?"_

 _"To a place where the truth will finally be revealed," Eloise callously replied to him as she appeared before him, while her sisters dragged Tilly away._

 _He glared at the villainess darkly and struggled against those holding him back while he angrily responded, "I swear, Eloise… I won't let my badge stop me from killing you if you hurt that girl!"_

 _She stopped as she looked back at him and stated coldly, "Calling me Eloise? My name is Mother Gothel. And don't worry, Detective. Tilly's not the one I'm going to hurt."_

 _Then, with a nod of her head, her sisters within her coven dragged him through the same door where they led Tilly through, then down the stairs while he glared up at the witch as Gothel followed behind him. He continued to fight against them, but to no avail. Their hold on him was too strong._

And then, his nightmare changed once more, and it wasn't long before the former detective found himself again within the dark cave beneath the city above them, sitting upon a large stone beneath him as ropes bound his ankles together and his arms were tied behind his back.

 _"You've been onto things for a long time, Detective," Gothel at last spoke up to him again, as she began to explain her reasons for kidnapping him and the young woman he was about to learn was really his daughter. "Questioning, investigating, pondering the persistent parade of the impossible. You can rest easy because you're right… we are witches."_

 _"At least you don't have to worry about a cult," Ryce smugly said to him as well while still under Gothel's trance, which Rogers was unaware of._

 _The younger detective glared at him as he retorted, "You disgrace your badge."_

 _At last, Tilly pleaded with the woman who claimed to be her mother as she demanded strictly, "Let us go."_

 _"Oh… no, my child," Gothel coolly answered her, while she began to walk around her in a circle. "You're not going anywhere. Not until after you help us cast our spell."_

 _"Hey," Rogers then whispered to pull the girl's attention onto him in order to try to reassure her she was going to be all right. "It'll be all right, Tilly."_

 _The young woman looked down at him with fear in her eyes as she softly replied, "I really don't like it here."_

 _She then turned back to the leader of the witch coven when Gothel responded, "That's because you haven't accepted who you are yet. I am truly sorry I never saw it sooner. How special you are. Had I known you were like us, things would've been very different for you."_

 _"Your mother has a gift for finding special people…" another of the witches who called herself Seraphina then added when she walked up from behind Tilly. "Outcasts, exiles… I was the first she recruited to her coven."_

 _"A coven that'll soon be behind bars!" the detective immediately threatened as he looked between the misguided woman and Mother Gothel again._

 _However, the coven leader grew impatient by Rogers' constant defiance and she kept her eyes on Tilly as she retorted firmly, "Don't listen to him. We're your family. And family help each other."_

 _Tilly glared back at her mother again while she answered darkly, "Like you helped my father? You killed him!"_

 _"Your father's right in front of you," Gothel then cruelly replied to her, and turned her head to look coldly upon the coven's prisoner there to be used against Tilly to convince the young woman to help them, as Tilly also looked down at him in shock of the revelation. "That's right. The love you feel is real, you just don't remember it."_

 _"You were born from both sides of the looking glass as both his and mine, and you know it's true," she continued on as she walked over to stand in front of her daughter so she could block Tilly's sight to her father, then the witch reached down to gently take her hands into her own. "I only want to help you figure out which side you belong on. Leave humanity behind. Join your sisters and I'll be the mother you always wanted."_

 _At first, the girl held Gothel's hands and smiled at her like she was falling for the witch's lies much to her mother's delight, until Tilly swiftly yanked her hands free and glared back at her again as she responded venomously, "Whatever you might be, you're no mother to me."_

 _Unfortunately, the moment Tilly defied her as well, the two witches standing behind Rogers swiftly yanked his head back by grabbing a tight hold of his hair, as one of them suddenly thrust a long curved scythe blade against his throat to threaten him in order to prove how far they were willing to go to get Tilly on their side, then Mother Gothel spoke again to her darkly saying, "If you won't help cast the spell for me, perhaps you'll do it to save your father."_

 _Rogers looked into Tilly's eyes while he shook his head pleadingly so that she wouldn't do like the witches wanted of her, even to save him. However, the young woman who cared deeply about him could only look down on him sadly as well, afraid for her father's life. Gothel then stepped away from them, as she walked over to one of the rock walls of the cavern upon seeking something concealed within it. At last, she finally found what she needed._

 _"I remember this," she stated with a loud gasp in awe, then yanked the small object free from within the stone, before she finally returned to rejoin her sisters and prisoners again. "This is it! Another scrap of magic left behind. How little mankind left… Just tatters and rags. It's time to change that."_

 _"Humans… even when they're beautiful, they're poison," Gothel cruelly sneered, as she knelt down beside the detective she had deceived and seduced long ago to create their child now grown, while Tilly watched on in repulsion when her mother reached up with her hand to her father's head, then sickly began to run her fingers through his hair and to caress the left side of his face, until Rogers struggled to pull away from her._

 _And then, when the coven leader reached down to lift his hand enough so that she could stab him with one of her tacks in order to steal some of his blood, causing Rogers to groan out of pain, Tilly fearfully asked, "What are you doing?"_

 _The witch smiled up at her prey she continued to kneel beside, then she stood again and carefully placed the tack within a small vile to keep it protected as she answered coldly, "Taking another tatter of magic. And amusingly, I'm also making a point. I can either take a little bit of blood, or these witches here can take the whole lot."_

 _"So I ask you again," Gothel then began as she turned to face her daughter again. "Do you want to help me, or do you want to watch him die?"_

 _"Don't do it, Tilly," Rogers at last pleaded with her again while he looked into his daughter's eyes the best he could despite the witches' hold on him._

 _Unfortunately, the young woman knew what would happen if she refused and so she reluctantly grabbed the extra cloak Seraphina held out for her to take to protect him, as tears slowly began to trickle out from the corners of her eyes, then once Tilly obeyed her, her mother said again smugly, "There you go. And when you see the beauty of what we're going to bring back, you won't mind the cost at all. We have everything we need. Let's begin."_

 _Minutes later, once Tilly was holding Mother Gothel's hands so the witches could begin their ritual, and dark magic suddenly burst out all around them within the engravings of the circle that the witches all stood around, Rogers looked up into her eyes again while he spoke pleadingly saying, "Please don't do this, Tilly. I'm just one life. If I truly am your father, then I'm asking you as a father… don't do this."_

 _"I feel that it's true," she sadly replied as she looked down on him through her tears, yet smiled upon finally understanding why she's felt so close to him ever since they met, until the tone in her voice grew cold when she thought of him dying if she listened to his pleas. "You are my father. That's why I have to do this. I can't be responsible for killing you."_

 _"Nature's witches, words unheard, our wishes worthless, worse than dirt," Gothel began to chant darkly once Tilly at last took her rightful place around the circle next to her mother, as Rogers shook his head ashamedly while he watched his daughter give up her life just to protect him. "Until we learned what we were worth to turn our hurts into your burns. Our purest urges now emerge. Old for nursery, dark for church. Close the circle. Purge the earth."_

 _Tilly fearfully took the witch's hand on her right when she held it out to her, then turned her head to look down on her father one last time, as he made one final effort to plead with her not to do this when he shook his head once more, until the leader of the coven looked over at her and stated sternly, "Hold on to your mother's hand, dear. I'm your family."_

Beyond his nightmares, within the safety of his new home, Rogers suddenly began to writhe wildly within the blankets on his bed as he fought to break free of the darkness consuming his mind. However, whatever hold had taken over him, its grip remained strong as one final terrifying memory played out.

 _While Rogers fearfully looked up into his daughter's eyes once she fell into a dark trance upon being pulled under Gothel's spell, he pleaded with her to hear his voice as he whispered sadly, "Tilly… Tilly!"_

 _"It's too late, Detective," Sergeant Ryce then said to him coldly, as he stood guard behind the coven once Gothel left the cave to finish the ritual she had begun elsewhere._

 _"What's too late?" the good man immediately curtly retorted, then looked up at one of the witches in fear upon seeing her begin to shake uncontrollably, until she suddenly vanished while her cloak fell heavily to the ground. "What's happening?"_

 _Her sisters' chanting continued around him, as the detective stared down at the cloak while Ryce walked over to pick it up, only to reveal that the witch had become nothing more than a small tree at his feet, and Rogers questioned him angrily, "What the bloody hell was that?"_

 _The Desk Sergeant smiled down on her as he responded, "She's been gifted. When a member has completed her task… given all that she has, she is rewarded with a place in the Eternal Grove._

 _"What about you?" the younger detective coldly asked him as he looked up at his daughter once more, then turned away to keep his eyes on Ryce while he cautiously began to loosen his bonds to finally break himself free at last so that he could get Tilly out of there. "Will you be rewarded as handsomely?"_

 _"They are the chosen ones," the other man answered him while he devotedly folded her cloak and laid it down upon one of the larger boulders around them. "I will be spared… but not rewarded."_

 _Ryce sighed and then turned back towards the prisoner again while he started to add cruelly, "But you will find the worst…"_

 _However, the desk Sergeant was shocked to discover that Rogers had managed to break free and seemed to disappear. He swiftly ran around the circle of witches as he looked around for the detective. But before he got far, Rogers suddenly stepped out in front of him again from behind the wall where he hid momentarily and swung his fist with as much strength as he had in order to render the traitor unconscious so that he could help Tilly._

 _The man groaned as he fell, while Detective Rogers swiftly bent down to pick up his prosthetic hand he had unlatched from his brace in order to get out of the ropes, clicked it back into place, then he ran over to the girl he too felt was his daughter like she felt him to be her father, and urged sternly, "Tilly… we have to get out of here now before that witch comes back."_

 _"No," the young woman darkly replied while still under Gothel's influence, as he looked on her in fear. "I can't do that. I'm to be with Mother."_

 _However, he reached out to grab hold of her so he would be able to pull her out of there while Rogers adamantly responded to her in objection, "The hell you are."_

 _Unfortunately, in the moment that he touch his daughter, dark magic emanated from Tilly into him, and Rogers suddenly cried out in anguish as he collapsed to his knees on the ground beside her upon feeling such intense pain that felt like thousands of knives shooting through his heart, then he weakly cried out, "What the hell?"_

 _"Tilly, what are you doing?" he asked her with a heavy strain in his voice while he struggled to stand again. "I don't know what's happening, but… I will come back for you."_

 _"I will save you," Rogers steadfastly promised her while he breathed heavily through his pain, and then finally ran away from her as fast as he could despite his agony, so that he could find his partner in order to bring back help to save her._

At last, when the final nightmare plaguing him ended, Rogers suddenly awoke with a frightful gasp as he immediately shot up from his bed beneath him and fought desperately to get his breathing back under control. He was drenched in cold sweat and upon looking around him in fear, he found that his blankets and sheets were thrashed, and that the lamp from his nightstand was smashed upon the floor from when he must have struck it in his fight to wake up from his terror. A fear he couldn't understand, except that these nightmares were no ordinary nightmares.

He weakly stood from his bed, quickly pulled on his boots, then walked to his closet to grab his jacket, and finally ran as fast as he could into town despite still feeling weak, making his way to the area of Storybrooke now expanded to include the parts of Hyperion Heights which also came over in the curse, including the Community Gardens that was still home of the blackened tree his daughter had turned Mother Gothel into upon her defeat.

At last, Rogers stood in front of the tree surrounded by purple hyacinth flowers and released a heavy sigh of relief upon seeing nothing's appeared to have changed, as the witch still remained trapped. Unfortunately, he was unaware that the woman who had bumped into him earlier that evening, still wearing her cloak and its hood over her head, was crouched down within the gardens nearby behind him while she remained hidden. And when the pirate Captain of the Wish Realm arrived to make sure that Gothel remained imprisoned, she smiled cruelly upon seeing that the beginnings of her plans had been successful.


	5. Chapter 5

United In a Second Chance

Chapter Five

Still inside the Community Gardens, Rogers continued to study Gothel's blackened tree closely while he walked around it, looking for any signs at all that might show if it had been tampered with. Thankfully, when he found that nothing appeared to be any different and that all seemed well, he knelt down on his knees in front of the tree so he could reach out to run his fingers gently along the soft petals of a few of the flowers his daughter created through her magic, then he stood up again so he could leave the gardens again at last, without uttering a single word.

Once he was gone, the mysterious woman rose back to her feet from where she had remained crouched low to the ground in order to remain hidden from his sight, then she walked out into the open and stood in front of Gothel's tree right where the former detective had been standing just minutes earlier.

While she stared up at the tree nymph's branches and lovingly ran her hands along the trunk, tears began to slip down from the corners of her eyes and at last spoke softly saying, "I'm sorry I failed you, sister. That I allowed my misery of my own defeat to stand in the way of me becoming part of your coven those fourteen years ago. But I've learned much since then. New powers… new magic… And much has happened to help fuel my anger and hate towards those who would claim to be heroes. Now… Now, I will make those who hurt us both pay. I can no longer have my revenge against the man who murdered my son, or against the man who murdered my half sister eons ago. However, I can get revenge on the man who prevented me from becoming one of you. And in turn, it will allow me to free you from this dead tree you've become thanks to his daughter. Then together, we will both strike against these heroes and strive to make the world you showed me was indeed possible. The world you almost succeeded to create yourself. We can do it together, sister. I promise."

Fourteen years ago, in the Enchanted Forest beyond Camelot…

An old woman in her seventies ambled weakly with a walking stick through the forest until she came upon a freshly dug grave, then struggled to kneel before it so she could lay flowers upon its tombstone and to pay her respects to the man buried within. And then, upon seeing how unprotected the body was from the animals of the forest, she laid her hands over the grave and suddenly, magic began to emit from them, as the stones and dirt suddenly metamorphosed into pure diamond which would never become defiled or destroyed by wild beasts, mankind, or foul weather.

Moments after she finished, another woman with long grayish brown braids and wearing a red and black cloak with a hood pulled up over her head to conceal her face, walked up from behind her as she said with sincerity, "I must say… that was quite impressive, my dear. And I am truly sorry for your loss."

"Who are you, to sneak up on an old woman in her time of mourning?" the woman still kneeling questioned her, then slowly turned around to look up at who had come to interrupt her during her grieving. "Are you some Princess seeking to keep her identity a secret? A beggar woman coming to me for a scrap of food?"

"I'm hardly either of those kind of people," the newcomer replied to her once again, then finally lowered her hood to reveal herself. "My name is Mother Gothel. And like you, I possess great magic. I promise you, I mean you no harm. I've come here to seek out those with power such as yours. As I've sought out others through many, many realms before you. Don't deny what you truly are. Please… show me."

The old woman struggled to stand again to face her straight on and then she responded to the tree nymph sternly, "Perhaps. If you prove to me you have the gifts you claim to have?"

Gothel smiled and lifted her hands out before her, then all of a sudden, she began to grow wild flowers all around the grave to help enhance the beauty of the area where this man dear to the other sorceress had been laid to rest. And when she finished, the woman before the tree nymph smiled back at her, then waved her hands over her body in order to transform back into her true self. A beautiful sorceress who was old in age, yet young in appearance. She had long blonde hair she wore half pulled back, and had big brown eyes.

The witch, thousands years in age, looked on at her true form, then she stated, "That's much better. You're quite beautiful. Just as I knew you to truly be. I've heard rumors of witches and powerful sorcerers and sorceresses living here in a land known as Camelot. A great sorcerer who went by the name of Merlin, a sorceress by the name of Morgan Le Fay, a witch known as Madam Mim… And yet, you're none of them. I've heard tell of this great Merlin to be trapped within a tree and Morgan Le Fay to have been killed. By Merlin himself, while mysteriously still a tree. No one knows where this… Madam Mim is anymore. So tell me… who are you?"

"I am Morgause," the Sorceress finally answered her. "Half sister to Morgan Le Fay, and mother to this man lying here dead because of King Arthur of Camelot. Mordred. He was once a Knight of the Round Table. But when my son saw the beginning of corruption within the self proclaimed King's heart, he dethroned Arthur and took his place on the throne for a short time in hope of helping Camelot to rise. However, Arthur returned even stronger than before and he murdered my son. My disguise before was because I am now wanted. King Arthur has sent his knights to kill me, because I attempted to kill him out of revenge, only to have failed."

"Perhaps I might be able to help you," Gothel replied to her once again. "I have formed together a coven. A coven of sister witches such as yourself. Join with me, and together we can do great things. Beginning with helping you to achieve vengeance on the very man who murdered your son. I can help you to develop your magic beyond what you could ever dream of before. With my help, you can do anything your heart desires and with you, we can create a brand new world. A world of beauty. However, before you can simply join me… I need you to prove to me that you have what it truly takes to be one of us."

Morgause looked at her suspiciously as she asked, "And how would I do that?"

The tree nymph reached out to take her hands into her own and then she responded, "For now, just come with me. So we can get to know you and you can get to know us. You're quite far from my own home within an exotic grove in the New Enchanted Forest. A different realm altogether from this one. I promise… you will love it there. And you will no longer have to hide who you truly are. Among us, you will be loved. What do you say, sister?"

"I've nothing left here for me any longer," the younger witch sadly answered her, then looked down again upon her son's grave and knelt on the ground once more. "Mordred was everything to me. I loved him, as he loved me. He did me proud and yet it got him killed. I failed to protect him despite my power, because I was too weak and untrained. So yes, Mother Gothel… I will come with you if you promise to help me to become more powerful than what I am now. Help me to get revenge on my son's killer, and I will do anything you ask of me."

"We shall soon see if all you say is true," the villainess said to her in return, then she pulled a magic bean from inside her cloak and tossed it to the ground in front of her to open up a new portal that would bring them back to her home, before she reached out to take one of Morgause's hands into her own. "Right now you have potential. We're going to find out if you have more. Now… follow me. And do not let go."


	6. Chapter 6

United In a Second Chance

Chapter Six

After Rogers wearily walked away from the Community Gardens, he continued walking without really thinking about where he was going despite the lateness, or rather the earliness of the hour. At least until he eventually stopped, then looked up at the sign above one of the buildings' doors only to discover he had subconsciously made his way to what was once again Kelly & Roni's Pub like it had been in Hyperion Heights before the witches' curse had caused the sisters to break apart. It didn't really surprise him much, since Roni's had been a safe haven for him many mornings while he was cursed and he became obsessed in trying to find the villainess he believed to be an innocent woman named Eloise Gardener, and fought to bring down Victoria Belfrey to stop her corruption. And it appeared that Roni's would continue to act as a safe haven for him even now.

Unfortunately, when he pulled his phone from his jacket pocket to find out what time it actually was, the former detective found that it was only just after four in the morning, and that no one would arrive at the pub to open up for another few hours yet. Not until someone would come to open up for the early risers around six o'clock. But, knowing he wasn't going to be able to fall back to sleep, nor did he want to, Rogers finally just took a seat outside at one of the tables within the patio area to wait, as he struggled to think about what might be troubling him so deeply. They were after all, only nightmares and nothing worse than what he'd suffered from before. Except that something about these made them feel like they were.

Six o'clock finally came and went, yet Rogers remained oblivious when Henry arrived to open up the bar and got to work. The younger man eventually saw his friend out on the patio and was about to walk out to talk to him so he could make sure Rogers was alright. However, the first few patrons arrived just after he had, making so he didn't have time on account of having to make the morning coffees, as well as having to set out the muffins and pastries he'd ordered from Tiana's restaurant. It was mostly Cajun food she and Naveen made to serve, but they also continued to make their beignets and other pastries as well.

"Could I get two coffees with a few creams and sugars on the side, and a few of your blueberry muffins this morning, Henry?" the young man's stepfather then said from inside the pub, when Killian walked in that morning to pick up something for himself and his wife upon approaching Henry at the bar, until he saw Rogers sitting alone in the patio area staring off in the distance with a look on his face he knew only too well.

"It looks like he's been here awhile," Henry responded to the pirate Captain he'd known now for many years since Hook had arrived in Storybrooke to get revenge against Rumplestiltskin. "I was going to go talk with him, but… Well, it got kind of busy in here quicker than usual."

Killian glanced around the room, then looked back at his stepson and nodded before he answered, "Aye. That it is. Don't worry. I'll talk with him. By the way… this is a nice tavern. I must be sure to let Her Majesty and Zelena know when I see them at breakfast."

Henry smiled and quickly told Killian he'd bring his coffees and food out to him in a few minutes, then took care of a few other patrons before he could. Meanwhile, the Captain stepped away from the bar and walked outside so he could talk to the man who had quickly become a good friend to him and Emma since his own arrival in Storybrooke.

At last, the newest sheriff was pulled from his thoughts when Killian appeared and stood above him, until he then took a seat at the table across from his friend and other self from the Wish Realm as he spoke to him worryingly saying, "You're up awfully early, mate. But then I've never been one to sleep in much myself either. Always an early riser. You know… being a pirate and Captain of a number of disorderly crewmen for hundreds of years."

"I do know," Rogers replied to him. "All too well. I certainly don't miss being their Captain any longer. The sea, yes. At times. But not captaining a band of pirates, or the pirate life."

"I may still consider myself a pirate, but like you, I certainly only miss waking up every morning on the waters, surrounded by the fresh sea air, and the sounds of the waves splashing up against the side of the Jolly Roger," Killian thoughtfully responded once he turned his head towards the direction of the ocean and looked beyond them, then finally returned to facing his other self again. "So… what seems to be troubling so early this morning? Whatever it is, you can talk to me, you know? About anything. I could take a guess if you'd like? You're having nightmares perhaps? Believe me… I know them all too well. I've had plenty of early mornings such as this. I've worn that look on your face often."

The pirate Captain from the Wish Realm finally raised his head to look at his friend while he asked curiously, "What kinds of nightmares have haunted you? Do they still?"

Emma's husband nodded his head gently as he answered him, "Aye. They still haunt me even now. But not nearly as often as they used to. Thankfully, Emma's always been there to help me get through the pain that comes with them. I've been haunted by what I… by what I suppose we did to our father. Some of the innocent people I've killed, including David's father. He was the man we came across and thought to be a drunkard, bound to the wagon by King George's soldiers. Who we killed for the King's treasure and so he wouldn't talk. Also… I've suffered many nightmares from mine and Emma's time being the bloody Dark Ones and then suffering immeasurable, unbearable tortures while down in the Underworld."

"You were once the Dark One?" Rogers suddenly questioned him out of confusion and shock upon learning this about his other self. "The both of you? But you're here and not the Dark One now. How… How is that even possible? And you were down in the Underworld too?"

"A lot's happened since both our lives diverted down different paths upon the Evil Queen in your realm failing to cast her bloody curse," Killian continued. "Aye… Emma and I were both Dark Ones. Our Rumplestiltskin was dying. Losing what little good was in him at the time, until all that would have been left was nothing but the darkness. Just like what I suspect must have happened to the Wish Realm's version. Anyways… to save him, we unintentionally unleashed the darkness when a friend expelled it from his body. But it sought out a new vessel because it needed to tether itself to someone. It almost consumed Regina, but Emma saved her. Took the darkness into herself because saving people is what the Savior does. A lot happened. We finally found Emma again in Camelot, fought to save her from the darkness, but in so doing, I almost died. The only way to save me was to tether me to the darkness as well, after which I too became a second Dark One. I did… terrible things. Allowed my hate for the entity and myself consume me and I took it out on Emma, as well as everyone else. Eventually, Emma got through to me and was able to help me resist the darkness, but… in so doing I actually did die and wound up in the Underworld. I was tortured. Then, Emma saved me from death itself as well. She and her family, including Henry, all came down to bring me back to life. And thankfully, they amazingly succeeded. Sadly, we lost a good friend though. The man Regina loved. Robin Hood."

The former detective looked down sadly and then he replied, "Regina's told me about him. Henry too. I just had no idea how much occurred to bring his death about. I'm so sorry. For all of it."

Killian smiled sadly and bowed his head to show his gratitude, then he looked into his other self's eyes again as he said, "So… tell me your troubles. What's bothering you?"

"To be perfectly honest… I'm not so sure," Rogers apprehensively answered him, then raised his head to look up at Henry when he at last came over to join them with Killian's order in hand and set them down on the table between them, before sitting down himself. "I've had nightmares similar to them in the past and they were terrifying. But these… These somehow felt different. More real and I'm not sure what's brought them on."

"What kind of nightmares?" Henry asked his friend out of concern for him. "Do you mean like the ones you used to have about Gothel and losing Alice? Of failing your daughter?"

The pirate from the Wish Realm looked over at the younger man and nodded while he replied, "Aye. And more. Only tonight, it was like they were… more of a warning of sorts. I just don't understand how they could be, or what they were warning me of. I fought to awaken from these nightmares, and I know I had them because of the condition of my bed and the lamp having been shattered upon the floor. Not to mention that I awoke with a loud cry and drenched in a cold sweat. But on top of all that… I felt compelled to run this morning down to the Community Gardens to make sure Gothel's still imprisoned within her tree and she is. However, I… Well, I can't help but fear that somehow… somehow Gothel might return. We can't let that happen. I won't lever allow her to hurt Alice again."

Upon seeing the fear in his friend's eyes, Killian immediately assured him, "She won't. I promise you… Gothel can't hurt your daughter again, Rogers. And that witch won't ever become freed from her prison. Surely, these nightmares are just that. Nightmares. But if they're not… If they really are warnings as you fear, then we'll deal with whatever happens, together. You and Alice will be protected, I swear."

"Thank you," Rogers sincerely responded to him and smiled, then looked over at Henry as well upon seeing the younger man smiling at him too. "Both of you."

"That's what it means to become a part of our family," Henry answered him again. "Our really big family. We not only keep each other safe when threats arise, but we always look out for one another. Whether someone threatens us, or we see that someone's just upset and worried."

All of a sudden, Killian's first mate came running into the patio area and up to his Captain out of breath from having run around Storybrooke trying to find him, as Killian looked up at him in concern while he asked, "Mr. Smee? What's wrong? And how long have you been searching for me? I thought you were aboard the Jolly Roger…"

Once the younger pirate was finally able to get his breathing back under control enough to talk again, he interrupted him sternly, "I… I was, Captain. I mean… I was preparing her for our morning voyage… Yours and Sir Henry's voyage. But that's when… that's when they showed up."

"Who's they, Mr. Smee?" his Captain darkly questioned him again.

"The Lost Boys, Sir," his first mate finally replied to him in concern. "The ones from Neverland… who you told us nearly burned you at the stake back when you became trapped there. They're aboard your ship and have demanded I come to find you. They're demanding to talk to you and they're not messing around. I guess that's why I'm not dead. But they're not alone. It appears… they've aligned themselves with Captain Black Beard, Sir. He's trying to steal the Jolly Roger."

Killian looked up at his friend worryingly upon hearing that the Lost Boys and Black Beard, who had all tried to kill him back when he had become banished to Neverland thanks to Gideon, had once again become a threat now that they were all living within the same realm. A threat he feared would come up eventually. Finally, he rose from his seat, then simply nodded for Smee to lead the way back.

When he walked away without another word, Henry started to follow after his stepfather out of worry, until he suddenly remembered he was on his own at the pub until Ella would arrive sometime later to join him. However, Rogers stood as well and patted his friend's shoulder assuredly, before he followed after his friend and Smee instead so he could make sure Killian would be alright.


	7. Chapter 7

United In a Second Chance

Chapter Seven

Once Morgause followed Gothel through the portal, they reappeared within the tree nymph's exotic grove she had grown long ago with the first of her sisters' help, so her new home would always remind her of the home and family that had all been destroyed by humanity thousands of years earlier. The sorceress looked around her in awe as she admired the beauty now surrounding her, until Seraphina, Madame Leota, and two other sister witches walked up behind her to greet the woman they too hoped would become their sister should Morgause pass whatever test Gothel had in mind for her to face.

When she turned around to face the other witches, the leader of the coven stepped up behind her while she laid her hand over the small of her back and then spoke gently saying, "Do not be afraid. Allow me to introduce you to my sisters. Madame Leota, Seraphina, Hilda, and Sage. We are the first of our sister coven. Sisters… I'd like you to meet Morgause of Camelot."

Seraphina was the first of the coven to answer as she looked at the sorceress while she stated, "Welcome, sister. You are safe here in the New Enchanted Forest. No one can ever find us here. We may live among humanity, but this grove is protected by the strongest of magic conjured through us all to keep it well hidden."

"You will never be harmed by anyone, so long as you remain here," Sage then continued on. "And should you become one of us, we will protect you with all the power we possess and love you like a sister."

"Why do you hide away from all of humanity?" Morgause then asked while she looked among the other witches now surrounding her. "Are they all really so terrible?"

Gothel's eyes darkened as she answered her wrathfully, "Humans who are without magic do not understand those who possess it. They despise us. Long ago, a small few of them murdered my family and destroyed my home! And they laughed."

Before she continued again, the tree nymph raised her hands and magically conjured a window into her past so she could show Morgause and her other sisters just how cruel and evil humanity can be. It wasn't long before the sorceress from Camelot watched as Gothel stormed inside a palace where a grand ball was being held, attended by glamorous people of great wealth.

 _And when Gothel walked swiftly towards the woman she held responsible for her humiliation and for the deaths of her loved ones, the young woman named Isla said to her haughtily, "Oh, you're back._ _I think you've gotten_ _some mud on your dress."_

 _"_ _Why'd you do it?" the young nymph angrily asked the spoiled child before her once they were standing only a few feet apart, ignoring the laughter around her, as everyone within the room, except for one, became amused by her attempt to confront them._

 _"_ _Because they were an abomination… like you," Isla cruelly responded to her, then she motioned with a nod of her head to the guards throughout the room to seize the witch among them._

 _Morgause watched as a single tear spilled down Gothel's cheek, then in amazement as she saw the nymph suddenly conjure up giant roots to slaughter the soldiers who attempted to attack her from behind, while everyone else immediately began to scream out in fear and to try to run away from the villainess' wrath. However, Gothel controlled the roots to slam the doors closed and to bar any hope of escape, then wrapped another larger root around the wretched girl before her._

 _As she did so, the tree nymph glared at Isla while she began to circle around her and then said to her again darkly, "My mother told me to_ _never forget my roots._ _And thanks to you, I never will._ _Nor will I forget the_ _humans that murdered them!_ _You…"_

 _Isla began to whimper as she attempted to plead with the witch, "No. No."_

 _"…_ _killed my family," Gothel angrily finished, as she commanded the root to wrap itself around the girl's neck._

 _"_ _No… no, please," the woman begged her again._ _"_ _Please, no._ _Plea…"_

 _All of a sudden, the witch swiftly snapped Isla's neck before she could get out her final plea, and everyone gasped in shock by her cruelty, except one woman among those who had humiliated her earlier by pretending to be her friend, who immediately rushed over to kneel over her friend, and upon seeing her again, the witch glared down at her while she uttered, "You."_

 _However, as she attempted to kill her next victim, the other woman Morgause now knew as Seraphina suddenly raised her hands up above her and magically fought to hold back the roots about to kill her as well, then she spoke to Gothel pleadingly saying, "I'm like you,_ _but you're braver than I could ever be._ _I hid who I was_ _because I was afraid they would've come for me."_

 _"_ _You don't have to be scared anymore," Gothel then finally assured her once she regained control of her heavy breathing that came from her deep anguish within her, and lowered the roots again to show Seraphina she wouldn't harm her upon understanding why her soon to be sister had to hide away who she truly was, then held out her hand to the younger witch for her to take hold of._ _"_ _Join me."_

 _"_ _Join me!" Gothel then cried out more forcefully when Seraphina began to look around her at the others in doubt of the choice placed before her, until at last, Seraphina smiled up at her and gratefully reached out to take her hand in acceptance._ _"_ _You'll never be afraid again."_

 _When the nymph helped the first of her sisters to stand, they then turned towards the others throughout the room watching on in horror and fear, as they began to gasp when the guards outside of the room began to bang on the doors to help the people still trapped inside and the inexperienced witch fearfully whispered to her teacher, "The guards are coming._ _We should go."_

 _However, Gothel glared towards the others as she replied darkly, "No._ _We will not run or hide, or entertain this human stain again."_

 _Without hesitation, the last of the tree nymphs knelt in front of the large fireplace as she suddenly conjured more roots from within, which all soon became poisonous flowers that began to surround everyone else cowering behind the room's furniture. And then, they all began to scream when the flowers emitted their poison in order to kill them all._

 _"_ _They must all be made to pay!" the villainess angrily cried out once her poison filled the room, sparing only herself and Seraphina._

"For their sins, I slaughtered them all," Mother Gothel darkly spoke again with her back still to the sorceress once her memory finally ended, and she lowered her hands to close off her magic. "But their deaths aren't enough. Every human alive in this world are evil and corrupt. Just like those who murdered your son are too. You tried to kill the man who killed your son because you hate him and yet you failed because you were alone. But you're not alone any longer. At least, you don't have to be. Your son's murderers aren't the only ones who will suffer for their cruelty. One day, we will eradicate them all from this earth. It will take time and far more power than all that the five of us possess. But our sisters are out there. We must be patient."

At last, she turned around to face Morgause once again, then continued, "However, I need to know you truly are one of us. I need to know you have it in you to destroy all of humanity whether they've wronged you or not. If given the chance, those who killed your son will kill you too. As would any human who discovered your magic. As I've told you… they despise us. They would wipe us all out without a thought. Are you willing to show me you can kill without remorse, as they would kill you? To kill… no matter who they are?"

Morgause looked at her, then between the other women still surrounding her and finally nodded as she maliciously asked, "What must I do?"


	8. Chapter 8

United In a Second Chance

Chapter Eight

Present day, in Storybrooke…

Alice awoke to the sounds of the birds singing outside of her window within the cabin she now shared with her fiancé, as she slowly turned her head towards the window from the comfort of her bed with a smile on her face so she could watch them and listen for a few moments. When she finally looked over at the empty space in the bed beside her, she found a note left to her from Robin telling her she would be gone all day hunting with her brother Roland, and her father's friends, the Merry Men, all living within the Sherwood Forest that had also become a part of the United Realms.

At last, she slowly sat up, then began to get herself ready for the day. Once she was dressed, the young woman left her home and began to run through the forest as she's often done in the past, to make her way into downtown Storybrooke so that she could greet her father, who she hoped to spend most of her day with now that Robin was out with her other family. She didn't like hunting. So, the girl from Wonderland and other places never went with Robin on any of her hunting trips, although she accepted wholeheartedly that hunting was a big part of who the love of her life was.

When Alice finally arrived in town sometime later, she immediately made her way to her father's new home, not knowing that he wouldn't be there because he had been out since before the sun even rose. She knew he's always been an early riser, so when she found he was gone, she suspected he might have gone out to Kelly and Roni's Pub for coffee or maybe for some breakfast. She then walked away from the house and swiftly made her way through town, out to where one of the old mines' tunnels once caved in so many years ago to where what remained of their newly modified neighborhood of Hyperion Heights now stood.

Once she arrived at the pub and walked inside, she once again became disappointed to find that her father wasn't around. However, when Alice started to walk out, Henry called out to her from behind the bar where he was busy making another couple of patrons their coffees, and quickly motioned for her to come talk with him once he finished.

"Sorry… it's been surprisingly busy in here this morning," Henry finally said to her once he finished and walked over to stand in front of her while remaining behind the bar. "If you're looking for your father, I'm afraid you've just missed him. He left a few minutes ago to help Killian."

"To help him with what?" she worryingly asked him when she saw the concern in her friend's eyes while he spoke in regards to her father. "Are they in some sort of trouble?"

The young man shrugged and shook his head as he apprehensively replied, "I don't really know, but I'm worried they could be. Killian just received word from his first mate that an old enemy of his was attempting to steal the Jolly Roger. His ship, not Rogers'… or Smee's Wish Realm counterpart's ship that is. Anyways, Killian went to go deal with it and Rogers followed to help him in case of any trouble."

Alice looked at him suspiciously as she suspected he wasn't telling her everything, then she spoke to him again sternly saying, "But there's something else… isn't there? You're thinking there's definitely going to be trouble, don't you? Otherwise, you wouldn't have that worried look in your eyes. What is it, Henry? Please… if Papa's in trouble… What aren't you saying?"

"You're right," he reluctantly answered her at last with concern for his stepfather and for his best friend. "Look… the person trying to steal his ship… He's an old enemy of ours. Mostly Killian's of course, and your father's too. His name's Black Beard."

"I've heard of him," she responded out of surprise, then looked at her friend again in confusion. "The way Papa always spoke of him, it was like he never saw this Black Beard as much of a threat. He used to tell me wild stories… some of his pirate adventures when we still lived in the tower. Some of them were about Black Beard and how Papa always outsmarted him during their encounters. He told me that this other pirate was a fool."

Henry nodded upon partially agreeing with his friend's tale of Black Beard and then he replied, "Mostly he's right. I mean… I've met both versions of Black Beard. Your father's enemy and Killian's too. Both Black Beards were foolish and I suppose laughable at times. And both times I ever met him, he was easily defeated. But the Black Beard who is an enemy of Killian's… he's smarter and tougher than the one I met during your father's ruse to try to help me find my story. A fool… yes, but he's still dangerous. And I'm afraid it isn't just Black Beard who I was concerned about. Did your father ever talk to you about Neverland, Pan, or the Lost Boys?"

Alice nodded and looked down sadly as she answered him, "A little. But not much aside from that Neverland and all of its inhabitants were dangerous, and that he's ashamed of how he spent all those years in Neverland seeking revenge against… well against the evil version of Rumplestiltskin. But it always hurt Papa to talk about them, so I never pushed him to. I only ever just read the books out there written about my father. When I was cursed. About Pan, and Neverland… Why?"

"Because it appears that Black Beard has aligned himself with some of the Lost Boys Killian knew from his times there, and these boys are very dangerous," he firmly responded again and let out a worried sigh. "I saw the worried look in my stepfather's eyes. I wanted to go with him to help him, but I have to wait for Ella to get here. I called her to ask her if she could come in early. She'll be here soon and then I'll join them too. But your father left with Killian so he wouldn't have to face them alone."

"I don't understand," the young woman then crossly replied again as she stood up from her stool when she prepared to leave. "Why would Killian risk his life against these boys and Black Beard just to prevent them from stealing a ship? I know how much the Jolly Roger means to my father and obviously to your stepfather too, but…"

When he understood what she was thinking, Henry cut her off as he answered her brusquely, "Killian didn't leave to confront them just to protect his ship. He left because he read between the lines of their threat, which they asked Smee to pass along to him."

She looked at him again in confusion as she questioned, "What?"

"The message was that they wanted to talk," he continued worryingly. "But Killian knows Black Beard and he knows these Lost Boys. They wanted to fight him. To get rid of Captain Hook once and for all. Black Beard's threatened to do so hundreds of times. Only this time, they aren't in a fight on their own any longer in some land where there's no one for Killian to care about. Killian gave up his ship to Black Beard once to get back to Emma and misleadingly did so again the next time they confronted one another. It's a long story, but now Black Beard's here where he knows Killian has people he loves. And he knows that he and the Lost Boys will use those he loves to hurt him, unless he agrees to meet with them. Killian went to face them to protect us all. I know him and I know that's what this eyes were saying just before he took off."

"And now, my father's there with him," the girl from Wonderland fearfully responded to him in understanding, then started to leave so she could go find her father until Henry swiftly reached out to pull her back, before he quickly walked out from behind the bar.

As he did so, he urgently replied, "Wait. Just… just wait, please. I know you want to help your father. As much as I want to help Killian too. But I know Rogers won't want you to run out there and get trapped in the middle of what could very possibly become a real fight. He wouldn't want you to get hurt."

Alice looked at him sternly as she saw Ella walk in at last through the corners of her eyes and then answered, "Okay then… come with me to see to it that I don't get hurt."

"Hey… I got your message and came as soon as I could," the Princess immediately stated to her husband as she quickly made her way over to him. "What's going on?"

"I'm sorry to ask you to come in early," Henry quickly responded to her. "But Killian and Rogers are both in trouble and I have to go try to help them. I just couldn't leave without someone to look after everyone in here. Do you mind?"

Ella looked at him with concern as she replied, "Of course not. Go. Do what you have to do. Take care of Rogers and Hook."

Her husband leaned in to kiss her, then he answered, "Thank you, Ella. I'll make it up to you."

"Come on, Alice," Henry then apprehensively responded to Alice, while he grabbed her arm so he could pull her along with him as they finally left the pub. "I don't like that I'm bringing you with me, but I know that if I don't, you'll go on your own. At least we're not going to be the only ones who will arrive to help them."

"You're gonna call Emma and others to help us too," she gladly said upon understanding what he meant. "Excellent."


	9. Chapter 9

United In a Second Chance

Chapter Nine

Meanwhile, in Oz…

Zelena awoke to find that her fiancé was no longer lying in their bed beside her, but sitting out on their bedroom's balcony which overlooked all of the other realms and Storybrooke surrounding the Emerald City while he was reading Henry's own storybook, as well as the original storybook that had started everything after her nephew let Chad borrow them so that he could try to get to know each of the people he now lived among through their stories. The former Wicked Witch smiled at him as she watched him for a few minutes while he remained completely captivated by whichever story he happening to be reading at the moment, oblivious to her observing him.

She finally sat up and turned her body so she could pull her legs over the side of their bed, then stood up with the blankets draped around her still as she walked out onto the balcony to join the man she loved. Chad looked away from the book as she appeared beside him, then she looked down to see who's story he was reading in the original storybook and found it was Hook's from when he and his brother had mutinied against Captain Silver just after Liam had struck a deal with Hades.

As she leaned up against her love with her chin down on his shoulder, and wrapped her arms around him, Zelena spoke softly saying, "Not exactly the story of Captain Hook you might have known until now… is it? Of course, any story of Peter Pan you've ever known has totally gotten it wrong as well."

Chad turned his head towards her while he reached up to lay a hand over one of her own and responded, "None of your stories are like the stories I've known. But I have to say, I'm shocked to learn that Captain Hook was a slave before he was ever a pirate and Captain of his own ship… and because his own father sold him and his brother. It's terrible. I really can't blame him for becoming a villain. Not that I blame you for becoming the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz either. I read all of your stories first. Beyond what you've told me so far about your past. I'm so sorry, Zelena. About Hades… I mean. He was a fool for not loving you enough to let go of his hate and lust for power."

"I may have told you I had fallen in love with a God until our relationship soured, but the details are still too painful for me to talk about," she sadly replied to him as she looked away from him. "But then, I'm not the only one here in our crazy world who's been forced to kill the people we loved to protect everyone else. Regina and Emma both know exactly how I feel. Are you upset I didn't tell you?"

"Of course not," her fiancé lovingly answered her. "I understand why you couldn't. Just as I understand it's going to take time for you to share everything about you. And I want you to know that you can tell me anything. There's nothing you can say that will make me leave you, or love you any less. If you telling me you were a character from a story that I used to believe was only fictional wasn't enough, nothing is. Even if you were once a villain."

The red haired witch smiled when she looked at him again, then leaned in to kiss him and once she pulled back again, she whispered, "Hades may have been a God and I might have loved him, but he was nothing like you. And I love that about you. I would choose you over him in a heartbeat."

He smiled back at her and then whispered, "I love you, Zelena."

"I love you too, Chad," she responded and quickly kissed him once more before finally pulling away from him so she could begin to get ready. "Now… get ready. We're having company for breakfast this morning, remember? My sister's coming over, as are Emma and Hook, and David and Snow."

"It ought to be an interesting morning then," Chad replied, as he walked inside their bedroom and laid the book down on their bed, then began to get ready like she asked of him.

A short time later, Emma arrived with Hope in her arms just as her parents arrived as well, followed closely by Regina who arrived a few minutes after them. Two of Zelena's guards opened the Emerald Palace's doors to them and announced them to their leader just like they had done back when Oz was its own kingdom in its own realm, and back when Zelena was still wicked, then she and Chad both eagerly greeted their friends.

It didn't take long for the others to recognize that Killian was the only one who hadn't arrived yet, so David looked over at his daughter once they all sat down together at the long dining table elegantly set up with rich breakfast foods, muffins, coffee, and orange juice, while he asked her, "Where's Hook this morning, Emma? He's coming isn't he?"

The Savior looked between him and her friends, then turned her attention back on her own daughter as she answered, "He is. He just wanted to stop by to see Henry this morning at the pub. He hasn't been by to see it yet. He sent me a message a little bit ago though and said he ran into Rogers. He might be awhile yet. But we can definitely start eating."

"Rogers still goes there almost every morning, like he used to when we were all still cursed," Regina quietly responded. "Our place became like a safe haven for him. It's good that Hook stayed with him to talk to him. I think the two of them can really help one another."

"Absolutely," Emma stated in reply.

She then raised her head again to look at the Good Queen and asked, "Is Rogers still struggling with Gold's death?"

Regina nodded sadly, then she replied, "And it's not only that. He's worried about failing Alice again like he did before, no matter what I've done to try to convince him he's better than he believes himself to be. He and your husband are a lot alike. But then, all of us who were villains know what it's like to believe we're not worthy of our happy endings."

"Rogers will get there," Emma answered her again. "Killian has. It might have taken a long time for him too and he still sometimes doubts himself when he really shouldn't, but he sees himself as a hero now. And he's an amazing father. Sadly, he fears there's more of his own father in him at times, so he spoils Hope rotten to overcompensate for his own father being such a horrible father to him."

"At least Hope will always know she's deeply loved by both of her parents," Snow responded to her daughter and leaned over to play with her granddaughter, who smiled up at her from within Emma's arms. "And she is. Because that is what is most important."

Chad then changed the subject, as he questioned Emma's parents asking, "So… the two of you didn't actually fall in love at first sight then? I've been reading Henry's book and the Author's storybook. Some of them anyways. And I read the part about how the two of you met for the first time."

David and Snow looked at one another and smiled as Zelena's fiancé looked at the Prince while he added questioningly, "Did she really give you that scar on your chin?"

"And then I trapped her in of a net just outside of her tree stump where she used to hideout in from the Evil Queen's Black Guards," the Prince replied to him with a chuckle. "She stole a ring from me. Or at least, I thought she had. She tried to. My trapping her was actually how I got my own moniker. 'Prince Charming'. She really didn't like me at first. And I think I was just in awe that I had been bested by a woman. A very beautiful woman at that."

"Our love took a little bit longer than most of the fairytales told about us describe," Snow continued, as she took her husband's hand within her own and smiled at him once more until she turned her head to look back at her friend's own true love. "Just as most of our stories are different than the ones the outside world know of. But we love each other even more and no one out there can really understand the power of true love more than we all do. As you will too… if you don't already. Which I think you just might."

Zelena smiled at the man she loved, and he at her while she answered, "Chad most definitely does. He could have left me when things in our relationship turned dark. I mean… not only was he kidnapped by a serial killer looking to kill me for being the Wicked Witch, but he learned the truth about who I am really quickly, as well as who I was. Anyone else would have run far away from me. But Chad stayed. He showed me just how much he really loves me from that alone and it means all the world to me."

Chad leaned in to kiss his fiancée, then was about to say something more, until Emma's phone beeped to indicate that a text had come through. She quickly read it and once she did, she immediately stood up, then gently handed her daughter down to her mother who looked up at her with concern, as did her father and everyone else around her.

As she released her hold on Hope, Emma rushed over to the chair where she had laid her red leather jacket, while Snow asked her worryingly, "Emma… what is it? What did that message say?"

"It's from Henry," the Savior firmly responded to her as she pulled her jacket on, then glanced down at Hope once again with worry in her own eyes as well. "Killian's about to be in trouble. Black Beard and the Lost Boys who almost killed him when he was trapped in Neverland are attempting to steal the Jolly Roger. I have to go."

"I'm coming with you," David immediately replied to her as he stood up, then quickly grabbed his own jacket to follow after her.

Chad then followed suit so he could help them, whether the newcomer to the magical world of fairytales was prepared or not, and he looked down at his love while he stated, "I'm sorry. I have to go."

The former Wicked Witch smiled and looked at her fiancé with adoration as she answered, "Of course. Just be careful. I love you."

With that said, Emma nodded at him when he moved away to stand with them. But before he understood what was about to happen, the Savior reached out to grab his shoulder like she grabbed hold of her father's as well, then suddenly poofed them away from the Emerald Palace in Oz, to the harbor outside of town where the Jolly Roger remained docked.


	10. Chapter 10

United In a Second Chance

Chapter Ten

Inside Storybrooke's harbor, aboard the Jolly Roger…

While waiting for Hook to come out to meet them after they had sent Smee off to give him their message, the Lost Boys busied themselves by tying up the two men from Storybrooke whom they had taken hostage in order to get from him answers they've wanted long before the pirate somehow slipped through their fingers in Neverland years ago, when a magical door opened from out of nowhere and a mystery woman stepped out to save him. However, this fight for them would be more than just payback for their humiliation at being beaten so easily. It was also for Pan's honor. Black Beard on the other hand, just stood back and watched the boys while he waited, simply happy for another chance at a fight against his enemy who had managed to survive after all like Hook had sworn he would, and to escape from Neverland when he hadn't.

"So… who exactly are you?" the pirate Captain at last questioned the two men the boys had captured while they were heading into town on a job to fix a broken pipe which had burst at Granny's Diner. "Since we have a little time to wait, we might as well talk in order to help pass that time. I hate waiting."

"My name's Pinocchio, and this is my father… Geppetto," August's doppelganger from the Wish Realm sternly answered the villain, as he looked over at his father worryingly before finally turning back to face Black Beard. "Why have you taken us hostage? Is it really just so you can use us against Hook?"

Black Beard looked at the younger man as though he were confused by his question and shrugged while he replied, "Is that not enough?"

Pinocchio sighed in frustration and then he responded, "I mean… why not just steal the Jolly Roger, if the Captain's ship is all you're after?"

"Because Hook's ship, isn't all I'm really after," the pirate smugly retorted. "His head would be quite the added bonus. To at last prove to everyone throughout this strange new world that Black Beard is a far greater pirate Captain, than Captain Hook ever was. Plus… he humiliated me for the last time. Besides, the Jolly Roger is rightfully mine. Hook traded his ship again for a magic bean so he could get back to his wench. I delivered… he didn't. Even if the bean failed to get him home. It's high time he finally pays up."

"And if I recall correctly, you cheated badly to win my ship in that card hand of yours when we played for her," Killian suddenly answered his enemy when he appeared on the top of the gangplank upon stepping aboard the Jolly Roger. "Remember… you had six aces in your deck. Therefore, my ship is still exactly that. Mine."

Killian then looked worryingly towards his friends being held prisoner by a few of the Lost Boys, all of whom immediately stood ready for a fight when Hook arrived, and he spoke again crossly saying, "Let them go free. You wanted me to come for a talk… or a duel, which I'm assuming is why you all really requested I come, and I came. You have no need to hurt anyone."

Black Beard was about to speak again, until one of the Lost Boys who had become the boys new leader since Pan's demise, pulled a dagger from his belt and raised it up against Geppetto's throat, as Killian released his hold on his sword's hilt still sheathed within his scabbard at his side while he glared darkly at the boy, then finally the leader replied, "Whether we hurt them or not, that's going to be all on you, Hook. You released your grasp on your cutlass. That's good. You really do care about others beyond yourself. We thought what we saw in Neverland with your concern over Tiger Lily's welfare was all an act. And that all of Black Beard's talk about you having gone soft was just talk."

"Exactly what is it you want, Ayden?" Hook finally asked the boy in frustration, as he watched the leader pass turn the dagger over to another of them so that he could step forward to stand beside Black Beard while they continued to face off against their enemy turned hero. "Do you wish to try your hand at burning me at the stake again like you did the last time we were together? Take a look around… this isn't exactly Neverland anymore and building yourselves a pyre won't quite be so simple like before. Besides, I'm not alone anymore. There are people here in this strange new world as Black Beard called it, who care about me now too. As much as I care about them. So… if you really want to fight, you better ask yourself if the risk is worth it."

"Black Beard wants to fight you," the boy named Ayden angrily retorted to him. "We just wanted to talk to you like your first mate must have told you. And your friends here are going to help us to finally get the answers we deserve. We were simply interrupted the last time before we could ask you them.

Killian glared at the leader as he asked darkly, "You mean before you nearly burned me alive?"

The boy sneered and then he responded, "We want to know the truth behind what really happened to Pan. Who killed him?"

"I did," Captain Hook then swiftly answered the Lost Boys, when those who were holding Geppetto with a dagger to his throat suddenly pushed it tighter against his skin in order to make him see they were serious about killing his friend if Hook refused, causing the blade to draw blood as Geppetto winced in pain. "You think, I didn't hate him after everything I did for that demon child? I did. The ruler of my former kingdom wasn't the only one who killed my brother all those years ago. So when I saw the opportunity to end Pan's life, I took it. For the good of everyone here."

"You really consider yourself some kind of hero now, don't you?" Black Beard snidely replied to his oldest enemy, not understanding that Killian's real reason for confessing to killing Pan wasn't so he could take the credit for saving everyone from Pan, but to protect Gold's honor and his name for the hero the former Dark One had become, as well as out of fear of what they might do to those closest to Gold if they learned the truth, and that Gold was dead. "You've grown more than just soft, Hook. Although, you're still selfish and a coward. It's pathetic really."

Another of the Lost Boys added coldly, "You're also a liar. Pan was immortal. A pirate like you without magic never would have been able to outsmart him, let alone kill him."

Killian looked at him and the other boys smugly as he responded, "I ran your beloved leader through with my own hook after finding my own bit of magic to help me do so. I've traveled to many distant realms full of magic. Don't you think I could have found myself some powerful enough to defeat Pan?"

"Enough!" Black Beard suddenly shouted in frustration at last. "You boys have your answers. Can I finally make my old friend pay?"

"Let your prisoners go first," the pirate turned hero quickly demanded of him and the Lost Boys. "This fight is between us."

At last, the boy with the dagger to Geppetto's throat lowered it away from his friend like he was getting ready to comply. However, he then raised it up into the air in front of the woodcarver and was about to plunge it into Geppetto's chest, while Killian cried out for them to stop. However, before the Lost Boy could kill him, a single gunshot was fired from behind them and the bullet shot the blade out of the boy's hand, knocking it to the deck of the ship. Everyone immediately spun around to find Rogers standing on the upper step on the second level of the ship near to the ship's wheel with his gun in his hand, and his gun now pointed straight at Ayden after he had snuck aboard.

Black Beard stared between both Hooks in shock, until he asked angrily, "What the bloody hell sort of trickery is this? There's two of you?"

"As there are now two of you here, and two of practically everyone else too," Rogers answered him. "It's like you said, Black Beard… it's a strange new world now that the realms have been united. Now, Lost Boys… let our friends go. Or the next bullet won't just strike something from your hands."

"Do as he says," the boys' leader finally commanded those holding their captives, then they cut through the bonds to set the men free and once they were, Pinocchio and Geppetto rushed past Killian to leave the ship, thanking their friend with their eyes as they walked by him.

Black Beard glared at his own enemy as he stated again, "You survived like you vowed you would. And you found a way home after all, yet you didn't think twice about making sure I left that cursed island with you. You left me behind to die in Neverland!"

Killian shook his head while he retorted, "You knocked me out and left me to die there first! You were the one who insisted on coming along. The only fault for that is yourself. But what the devil are you complaining about? It appears you and the Lost Boys are now thick as thieves."

"I only aligned myself with them because I had no choice!" the ruthless pirate angrily replied. "They offered me a deal. But that's not what matters here. Now… it's time for you to die, old friend."

"Then let's get this bloody duel started," Hook responded as he pulled his cutlass, then motioned for his other self to stand back while the two enemies clashed swords.


	11. Chapter 11

United In a Second Chance

Chapter Eleven

Fourteen years ago, within Gothel's exotic grove…

On her first night among the witches' coven, Morgause lied awake despite the lateness of the hour after Sage showed the sorceress to her room for as long as she living among them. She had much to think about, including whether or not she was willing to devote her life to Mother Gothel and the other witches, and if destroying all of humanity was a necessary evil she could believe in as much as the others did. Very few villains even, had the courage to commit such an evil act.

Morgause hated the man who murdered her son more than anything and she held no qualms in destroying him or his entire kingdom just to get to him if necessary, which she suspected Gothel saw in her. But Mordred was human and she had once fallen in love with a mortal man who possessed no magic like she did, until he died from having grown ill when her son was only still a boy. Surely not all of humanity deserved to be smitten from their world.

However, these weren't the sorceress' only thoughts which haunted her mind, as she thought about her son and her last moment with him before he left home to try to kill King Arthur, until he was killed instead. A moment as Mordred stood alone within the armory of the King's castle after he finished putting on his armor for the battle he and the Knights of the Roundtable were about to fight alongside their leader.

The sorceress walked into the room, grateful to find that her son was alone, then she examined his armor and tightened a few of the metal plates to make sure he had secured everything perfectly while she whispered to him, "I hope you know just how proud of you I really am, my son. I know that what you know you must do during this battle is a terrible burden to bear. You love Arthur and the rest of your brothers. And killing your King will make you a traitor and murderer in all of their eyes. An offense that is punishable by death."

The knight finally looked down at his mother who was nearly a foot shorter than he was and then he replied, "I don't fear death, Mother. Nor do I fear doing what's right for the good of Camelot. I only fear what might await me should I fail. And I'm afraid that I might."

"You will not fail, Mordred," Morgause assuredly responded to him, as she laid both of her hands over the sides of his face in order to get him to look into her eyes. "And you aren't alone. You have me to help you."

"You know what will happen to you if you try to interfere on my behalf, and Arthur discovers you have magic," her son worryingly answered her. "You know that he doesn't trust anyone else who possesses magic aside from the all-powerful Sorcerer trapped within that damned tree out in the courtyard. And yet he barely trusts in Merlin anymore. I don't want to see you come to harm."

She smiled up at him while she replied sincerely, "You won't. But I will defend my son as much as I can, even if that means my own death. I'm not afraid to die either. I won't be able to bear it if anything happened to you, knowing I didn't use my magic to try to save you. So… just be safe out on that battlefield, and do what you must to see that Arthur dies even if you have to run him through with your own sword. Do you hear me?"

Mordred nodded, then he responded, "I love you, Mother."

"I love you too," she tenderly answered him as she stroked his cheeks. "You certainly know how to make a mother feel proud. Now go… Be the hero Camelot sorely needs."

At last, Morgause was suddenly pulled from her thoughts as Gothel entered her room and walked over join her on the bed so they could talk, as the tree nymph had come in to check on the sorceress. Upon seeing the tears in her eyes, Gothel reached out to lay her hand over the other woman's face in comfort, then took one of her hands into her own.

"Thinking about your son again?" the nymph gently asked her, then pulled her hand away again. "As you now know, I too know how it feels to lose everyone I love. My only family. I am truly sorry, Morgause. But together we can make things right. You can make your son proud by becoming the sorceress you were born to become. However, I cannot help you with your revenge, until I know for certain you will be one of us. I have put all of our sisters through their own tests and so far, Madame Leota, Seraphina, Sage, and Hilda are all who have passed my tests. Very few witches have been willing to join our coven. However, most I've tried to bring into our fold have simply failed me outright. They didn't have the strength, or the courage to do what is needed of them to fulfill this coven's destiny. I hope you understand."

"Perhaps I might, if you would tell me what I must do to show you what you want from me instead of being so secretive," the sorceress firmly replied to her. "I want more than anything to make the kingdom of Camelot, especially its King, to suffer for all they took from me. Do you need me to show you so?"

Mother Gothel studied the determination in her eyes and then she finally responded, "I'm afraid that even if you were fully trained in your power, it would take more than just yourself to eradicate an entire kingdom full of people, especially one that is so bountiful. Their army is vast and they possess riches beyond all the kingdoms I've ever been to. However, even if it were possible, I know that you won't have any trouble with killing all of those you hold responsible for your son's death. Which is why killing Arthur or anyone else in Camelot is hardly much of a test to see if you're worthy of being one of us."

Morgause shrugged as she thought about the other woman's words, then she looked at her again and asked, "All right… so what must I do then to prove myself to you? Just tell me. I'll do anything to see that all of Camelot is destroyed and its ruler dead."

The tree nymph answered her, "In a not too distant land, there is a small village that is well protected by another witch who has refused my offer to join our coven. So long as the people of this village pay her homage with offerings which please her, she keeps their crops alive, their food well supplied, and everyone safe from intruders who wish them harm. And when they fail, she makes them suffer for it. They fear this evil witch, but do as she demands of them out of fear of death. She is quite powerful. Not as powerful as the witch who banished her from her true home in Oz, but someone I hoped to have join the coven."

"Are you saying you want me to kill this witch for you?" the sorceress questioned her in confusion. "Because I'm pretty sure I can handle one witch."

"You can leave her to me," Gothel replied. "Tomorrow, I want to see if you have the courage to kill people who have never wronged you. People who you still see to be good and innocent, even though they would kill you if given the chance upon discovering what you are. If you can do this for me, then I will help you in your own quest for vengeance and will train you to strengthen your power. What do you say, sister?"

Morgause thought for a moment and then at last she responded unwaveringly, "If losing my own humanity by killing a number of people who are innocent is the cost of getting everything I want, then so be it. Where is this village?"

The true villainess smiled cruelly and then she answered, "In a realm known as Wonderland. And while there, you might just help to rid me of someone who has grown to become a thorn in my side as well."


	12. Chapter 12

United In a Second Chance

Chapter Twelve

Back aboard the Jolly Roger…

Rogers remained back on the upper deck like his friend asked of him with a single motion, and continued to watch on as Killian and Black Beard from his other self's own realm began to fight by clashing their swords together. Both pirate Captains were fairly equal when it came to combat, as the former detective knew from his own experience in fighting against Black Beard in his past as well. Unfortunately, the man who was still a villain wasn't one to fight fair and so Rogers kept his service weapon out and ready to fire, should his friend need his help.

However, when it appeared that Killian was about to gain the upper hand as he suddenly threw the other pirate off guard, then swiftly knocked him onto his back against the deck by using his hook to pull one of his legs out from under him, the Lost Boys chose that moment to join in on the battle when a number of them began to charge against their enemy who claimed to have killed Pan. Rogers had no clear shot to take, nor did he have it in him to kill the boys even if they did have no qualms in killing either him or his other self. So, the sheriff under Killian quickly holstered his gun, grabbed a sword from the hidden compartment in front of the ship's wheel, then cut through one of the riggings' ropes and swung down to join in the fight in order to defend his friend.

While Killian was busy fighting against the boys attempting to force him down, Black Beard got back to his feet and then attacked against his enemy once again, along with the boys who weren't fighting Rogers. Both heroes were outnumbered and while they were the better fighters, they were soon no match against the villain and Pan's Lost Boys.

All of a sudden, the other pirate Captain forced Killian to the ground upon knocking him off his own feet this time, then knelt over him with his knee firmly against his chest in order to keep his enemy pinned down, while Killian struggled to keep Black Beard from thrusting his sword into his chest using his hook to hold the blade off of him by its hilt, and his hand around the blade, causing the sharpened edge to cut into his skin and him to bleed. Rogers saw he was in trouble, but was too busy fighting his own enemies off to be able to help him any further.

Thankfully, Emma at last appeared aboard the ship's deck with David, Chad, and Smee in tow and upon seeing that her husband was in trouble, the Savior cried out to him in fear while she immediately used her power to thrust Black Beard back through the air and into the main mast with enough force to briefly render him unconscious.

"Killian!" she shouted again and ran towards him once she picked up Black Beard's fallen sword from the deck so she could fight alongside him, while David rushed forward and punched one of the boys square in his jaw to steal his own sword in order to be able to help Rogers.

"I may be new to this kind of fighting, but I'm not incapable of protecting a friend even against a child with a sword and a gun," Chad curtly said to another of the Lost Boys when he attempted to sneak up on Emma from behind her, by kneeing the teenager in his stomach to force him down and grabbed the pistol from his hand and his blade from his scabbard, then continued to fight the best he could alongside Hook's first mate.

Ayden suddenly charged against Killian once the Captain was back on his feet, just as Henry and Alice finally arrived aboard the Jolly Roger too. The young woman from the tower immediately sought out her father and saw him fighting alongside David against half a dozen of the boys who determinedly kept charging against their enemies. Henry also watched on while his mother, stepfather, grandfather, and friends were all busy fighting their own assailants, who might have been mere boys, yet they were also the most vicious of Pan's army and were well trained in combat long before their former leader was killed. As much as he wanted to join his family, he had come with Alice in order to protect her. So when Rogers' daughter attempted to run towards her father to help him, he swiftly grabbed hold of her again to help keep her back and out of harm's way like he knew Rogers would want.

Killian at last managed to strike the boy Ayden across his head, knocking him out cold as well, or so the pirate Captain thought he had done. As soon as Hook then turned his back to him in order to fight with his wife against some of the other boys again, the Lost Boys' leader stealthily pulled a small dagger from his belt behind his back, then swiftly rose back to his feet behind the man he believed to have killed Pan with his blade raised above his head to strike Hook down.

Rogers was the only one who saw him in time, and without hesitation, he immediately pushed himself in between Killian and his assailant, just as the boy thrust the blade downward to try to kill his friend, then shoved themselves forward. Alice screamed for her father when she saw the Lost Boy stab him through the back of his shoulder, then fall on top of his other self against the deck upon becoming wounded, and she swiftly raised her hands while she focused on each of the Lost Boys who were still a threat and suddenly unleashed her own raw power within her against them, rendering each one of them unconscious to end the fight once and for all without realizing what it was she was doing.

Upon her doing so, David, Henry, and Chad all couldn't help but stare down at them in shock before they raised their heads to look over at her, while Emma swiftly knelt down beside her husband and his doppelganger who saved him just now to help them. Once he was out from beneath Rogers' body, Killian helped Emma sit him up, then he held him while the Savior raised her hands over the wound to heal Rogers.

Alice ignored the stares from their friends and rushed to her father's side as well while she fearfully cried, "Papa!"

As Emma continued to keep her hands over his wound to finish healing him, Rogers looked over at his daughter and laid his hand over hers while he responded to her assuredly, "I'm alright, Starfish. Thanks to Emma and Killian here."

"It's thanks to you I'm the one who's okay," Killian corrected him with concern for his friend, even once his wound was finally healed. "You saved my life just now. Thank you."

"You would have done the same for me," his other self answered him when he turned his head to look over at his friend. "I owed you for saving my life after I tried to steal yours away from you."

Emma looked into her husband's eyes sadly, then at Rogers again as she replied, "You paid us back when you fought through your demons and became the man you are now. And you helped protect Henry while under that witch's curse. You owe us nothing, Rogers. Thank you."

He smiled at her and then responded, "You're welcome."

"Alice, how… how did you do this?" Hook from the Wish Realm then asked his daughter once Emma and Killian helped him to stand again upon looking down at the Lost Boys lying still across the deck. "I thought when Sir Henry took your magic away from you when he used the Author's quill to do so, your powers were stripped from you? I mean… you somehow used them to magic Maui's fishhook into the snowglobe we were trapped in before, but… I thought that was some kind of fluke once I realized what Henry had really done."

"I'm not sure," the girl from the tower worryingly answered her father. "I didn't really mean to. I mean… I was afraid for you and my magic sort of just… shot out of me. Just like it had when I saved you and the others at Rumplestiltskin's castle. But then I thought it was possibly because Robin was by my side and I might have somehow harnessed some of her suppressed magic through me. All I could think about was saving you. I didn't think I had any magic still."

Henry then spoke up upon thinking back to the words his other self had written with the quill to do like the evil Rumplestiltskin had asked of him saying, "Wish Rumple asked Henry to write the words, ' _The powers of the Guardian are no more_.' Perhaps the words weren't specific enough."

David looked at his grandson in confusion as he questioned, "What are you saying? Isn't this Guardian who Alice was before Sir Henry changed all that?"

"I'm saying… what if the only power that was stolen from Alice, was her ability to absorb the darkness from the Dark One, which would have freed Gold from the entity so he could live the rest of a mortal life and one day return to Belle?" the younger man replied again while he looked from David, to Alice, and then to Rogers as well. "We all know how unpredictable and finicky magic like mine can be. Alice just hasn't accepted or been trained in her magic, which is why she must not realize it's still a part of her."

"Always a smart lad," Killian finally spoke to his stepson again as he gently patted his shoulder proudly, then looked over at his other self's daughter and smiled at her. "And you've got quite the gift as well. Thank you for protecting us."

She smiled back at him and then answered sincerely, "You're welcome."

Emma tenderly rubbed her husband's back to show she was grateful he was alright until she stepped away from him to walk over to stand above Black Beard once he started coming to and struggled to rise to his knees to look up at the heroes who bested him. The sheriff then pulled her cuffs from her belt behind her back so she could arrest him.

However, before she started to handcuff his wrists together, the villain grinned at her snidely while Killian walked over to stand by her, and taunted his enemy, "Ooh… this must be the pretty wench that you went soft for. I must say, I can almost see why you couldn't let go of her, Hook. Although, I still would have kept a firmer grasp on the Jolly Roger. No woman's worth becoming weak and a laughing stock throughout all the realms like you've become."

"You're the only laughing stock around here, pal," the Savior coldly replied to the other pirate while she put the cuffs on him, with his hands and arms behind his back. "Captain Black Beard… you're under arrest. Congratulations. You've won yourself one of your very own cells within our prison ward among the rest of the villains who've lashed out against us."

"No brig's ever been secured well enough to hold me," he curtly retorted as he glared up at the woman standing over him once she walked out from behind him again to rejoin her husband at his side, while Killian roughly pulled the other pirate back to his feet.

When he did so, Killian then stated, "This brig can and will, I assure you. Unless you're willing to work hard to change your ways and stop trying to kill me, or to steal my ship, this brig will be where you spend the rest of your life."

Chad looked down at the boys still out cold as he then questioned, "And what about the Lost Boys? What's going to happen to them?"

"For now, we can put them inside the cells at the sheriff's station until we can determine what to do with them," Emma responded as she looked down at them as well. "Come on… we better put them where they belong, so we can get back to Mom, Regina, and Zelena before they worry enough to come out here looking for us to make sure we're all okay."

"I'm afraid you're too late for that," Regina suddenly answered her, when she and the other women appeared on top of the gangplank after the former Wicked Witch poofed them all and baby Hope still being held within her grandmother's arms, out to the harbor to find out what was taking so long for them to return. "Is everyone alright?"

Killian took firm hold of Black Beard so that Emma could walk over to carefully and lovingly take their daughter back from Snow, then she replied stoically, "Everyone's fine despite what these kids tried to do to hurt us. Regina… Zelena… would either of you mind sending them to the sheriff's station behind closed bars?"

Zelena turned away from her fiancé after making sure he was alright as well, then she responded assuredly, "I can do that. Though prison bars inside of jail cell is hardly what they deserve."

"Don't worry," Rogers answered her once the witch magicked the boys from off the Jolly Roger and within the locked cells at the sheriff's station like Emma asked her to do. "Their punishment will fit their crimes. And hopefully, they'll think twice the next time they think they might want to harm anyone ever again. That is… if they ever get out again from behind bars."

"I like how you think, Captain," she replied to him with a smug smile, then with a little magic from Regina, they all vanished from the ship docked within the harbor and returned to the Emerald Palace in Oz so they could continue on with their breakfast, while Henry returned to work.

Once they were gone, Morgause appeared aboard the ship's deck, then she walked over to the where the dagger used to stab Rogers through the back of his shoulder had fallen. She bent down to pick it up and stared at the pirate's blood still smearing the blade, until she swiftly vanished again with the dagger in hand just as Smee walked up on deck again so that he and the rest of Hook's crew could clean up after the fight and finish preparing the Jolly Roger for her voyage later that afternoon. The first mate failed to see the sorceress had been there.


	13. Chapter 13

United In a Second Chance

Chapter Thirteen

Once everyone returned to the Emerald Palace, this time with Killian, Rogers, and Alice as well, they all sat down together again at the long table so they could continue eating and then began to discuss what happened aboard the Jolly Roger during the villains' attack, why Black Beard and the Lost Boys attempted to steal the Captain's ship, or if their plan really was just to draw Killian out, and they also discussed their options of what they should do with the boys rather than simply just leaving them inside the cells within the sheriff's station for any given amount of time.

The Good Queen looked at Killian, as did everyone else too, once he started to explain that Black Beard's motives were always to kill him, as well as to steal his ship once he had succeeded, then Regina turned to look over at Rogers in concern when he went on to explain how Rogers had come with him to protect him, which Killian expressed he was truly grateful for.

Rogers once again shrugged off his friend's gratitude and then he stated, "It was right that I should have done so. You and I were both vastly outnumbered as it was. Had you attempted to fight them yourself…"

Killian finished for him, "I would have been killed today. I know."

"And had Emma, David, and Chad, as well as Henry and Alice not shown up when they had too, you both would have been killed today," Regina answered the man she'd become close friends with within the New Enchanted Forest, then all over again in Hyperion Heights as well while they had both been cursed with new identities. "You should have waited."

"And if we had, Black Beard or the Lost Boys might have killed Marco or Pinocchio instead," Killian sternly responded to her. "They were holding our friends captive when we arrived. And for all we know, they might have hurt someone else if we didn't arrive when we did. Had they sent the message to you and threatened Henry, Your Majesty… or anyone else even, you would have gone there by yourself too. All of you would have."

Regina nodded at last to admit it, then she replied, "You're right. I would have."

Zelena at last spoke up as well saying, "It's just a good thing Emma was able to heal Rogers here when she did. Luckily for you, Rogers… you weren't hurt worse than you had been."

"As much as I understand why you helped Killian, Papa… and as proud of you as I am, I still don't like that you were almost killed again today," Alice softly spoke to her father out of worry, without raising her head to look at him once he turned his head to look over at his daughter sitting beside him. "After losing you while I was still trapped in the tower all those years ago, Gothel kidnapping the both of us and threatening your life to force me to help her with her bloody spell before the curse was finally broken, and then nearly losing you weeks ago when the poison in your heart did at last kill you… I'm tired of seeing you risk your life for everyone else, over and over. It isn't fair. You could have been killed today… again. You almost were."

"Alice, I…" Rogers whispered as he attempted to answer her, until Alice immediately cut him off again when she abruptly stood up from the table.

Then, as she slammed her fists down, she shouted angrily and ashamedly, "No! I… I'm sorry."

Upon her sudden outburst, the girl from the tower suddenly ran from the Great Hall within Zelena's palace, then rushed through the doors once the witch's guards opened them to her so she could keep running. As soon as she started to run, Rogers quickly stood to follow after her as he cried out to her, pleading with her to stop.

However, Regina swiftly reached out to grab his arm to hold him back while she stood as well, then she said to him, "Try not to worry. Please… let me go after her. I'm not so sure she can talk to you right now and I have a feeling I know what's really wrong. Aside from her simply being worried about you that is."

"Alice is right," Rogers answered when he spoke again to the rest of his friends once Regina left the room to find and help his daughter. "I've been careless with my own life because I never really cared much about what happened to me. I've only cared about everyone's lives and what I had to do to make sure those I care about were safe. But I never really thought much about Alice's feelings and how she would feel if I actually died and there was nothing anyone would do could save me. Not really. I know she'd be devastated, but… I've always thought she'd get over it in time."

"She might eventually come to terms with losing you over time, Rogers, but your daughter would still be heartbroken," Emma sadly responded to the man who looked like her husband, as she then looked over at the man she loved and was reminded of all the times Killian risked his own life for her safely as well as for everyone else's, not caring about what happened to him either upon loathing the man he was despite being a hero to her and others. "Just like I would be if I lost Killian the same way… like I have. Too many times to count. And like I fear one day I still might again."

She then looked down at their daughter within her arms as she added, "Like Hope would be too once she's old enough to understand that her father, or me could one day be gone because we were killed protecting those we love from another villain."

Zelena turned to Chad and smiled at him sadly, then turned back to the others while she replied, "Just like Robin would have been had I actually been killed when I risked my life that time to save hers from Gothel in Memento Mori. Or my fiancé would have been had I been killed by Hansel to save him."

"We've all risked our lives to save those we love a number of times," Snow continued om with what her daughter had begun to say. "And it's right we fight to protect one another no matter the risks. But we can't do so with such callous disregard for our own welfares either. With complete disregard for how our loved ones would feel. We have to be careful by how it is we risk our lives and be sure that we're doing so for the right reasons."

"Which today, Rogers… I believe you did so for the right reasons," David answered when he looked first at his wife, then to Killian, until he finally turned his attention fully on his new friend. "You saved our son in law and for that, Snow and I will always be grateful. Just like Hook, Emma, and Hope will always be too. And Alice understands that, I'm sure of it. Just don't continue to think so little of yourself. I think that's what she's most afraid of. Is losing you because you still haven't forgiven yourself for the tragedies in your past and because you feel you don't deserve the second chance at life that you've been given. But you're as much of a hero as the rest of us."

Rogers smiled at him sadly, then nodded and responded, "Thank you, mate."

Prince Charming smiled back and reached out to pat his friend on his shoulder as he replied, "You're welcome."

"Very good," Zelena stated. "And now that we've got that all settled… Black Beard's been taken care of, but what exactly are we going to do with the Lost Boys? It's like all of you've said… we can't just leave them locked up in the sheriff's station. My protection spell will definitely keep them inside without the risk of them breaking out, but someone will still always have to keep watch over them and it's not like we have the manpower for that. We have few sheriffs and deputies for our entire kingdom now as it is."

"What if we create a home for juvenile children?" Snow then suggested as she looked between her family and friends. "I mean… I'm sure we've got empty buildings and castles now that all the realms have come together. And there are a number of the Lost Boys whom we brought home with us from Neverland that could potentially become wrongly influenced by these new ones if we were to set them free after a time. If we were to start a juvenile home right away, we can keep these boys and any children who make trouble in the future there to be looked after. I'm sure people throughout the realms will volunteer."

Everyone thought about the Princess' idea, and Emma finally answered, "I think that's a great idea, Mom. I'll make some calls later this afternoon once Killian leaves with Sir Henry and his crew to go out on the Jolly Roger."

David rubbed his wife's back, while Rogers then responded, "It's an excellent idea. I'll make a few calls myself. I think I know of at least one person who would be perfect for the job and would be happy to help. Jiminy Cricket… from my own realm. Now that's he's come over with everyone else in the Wish Realm within Regina's curse, and he's no longer a man in his cricket form, he's been looking for work. I believe Arche's offered him a position within his psychiatry practice, but… when he helps him, it's more side work than anything else."

"Yes… perfect," Emma replied to him, then she handed her daughter over to her mother again so Snow could hold and play with her long enough for Hope's parents to eat, and finally reached out to place a few pancakes on hers and her husband's plate. "Now let's keep eating. I'm starving this morning."

Meanwhile…

It didn't take long for Regina to find Alice again once she searched a few places for her after she thought about all the places in Hyperion Heights she liked to go when she was upset or just to think, then finally she poofed herself out to the tower where Alice had remained trapped in for the first seventeen years of her life. To where her troll and dear friend she once conjured to break her free from the tower, remained in stone outside of it to watch over the tower. As though he were watching over her.

"I should have known I'd find you out here," the Good Queen said to Alice gently upon approaching the girl sitting down on top of a boulder in front of her friend. "I understand why you ran off and so does your father of course, but… he's worried about you, Alice. He's very worried. You know that he didn't mean to upset you like that… don't you? That he risked his own life in order to save the life of one of the men who gave him a second chance at life? He has been blaming himself for Weaver's death and can't do anything to pay him back except to continue to be the good man he is. The good man Weaver died for. But to Rogers, that doesn't seem like enough. So saving Hook… was your father's other self today was his way of paying him back. And Hook too. Plus, it was the right thing to do. Hook might have died had his wound been worse, if your father didn't get in the middle of him and that dagger."

Alice nodded at last and then she answered, "Of course I know all that. And like I said, I couldn't be more proud of him. I just don't want to lose him again, Regina. I can't. I lived at least half of my life without him, not knowing where he was or if Papa was even still alive. I knew how devastated he was after what my mother… that witch, Gothel did to him. And even once I was finally freed from this tower, I still couldn't be near him for so many years once I finally found him again because of the poison over his heart. I just want to spend as much time with him as I can… to help make up for all the time we lost out on. And today seeing him get hurt again, I just… I just got really scared and I overreacted. I'm so sorry for that back there."

Regina at last sat down upon the boulder beside the young woman, and reached out to lay her hand over her back while she responded sincerely, "That's perfectly understandable. I've overreacted like that before, when it came to Henry risking his life. Back when I first realized he was all grown up upon seeing him fight alongside side his wife when they were first getting to know one another and I had just agreed to stay in the New Enchanted Forest to remain close to him. Also, when he was just a boy. Henry used to risk his life all the time in order to convince Emma the truth about all of this… about all of us being real. About the curse being real and he made me so mad, more often than I wish I had been. But now… I realize that if he hadn't have done all of those things, Emma never would have discovered who she was, my first curse never would have been broken, and I would still be the Evil Queen. None of this would have ever been possible. Henry would have continued to hate me. Our love… Emma's and mine for him… it's what saved him from the sleeping curse he once fell under. All of our love for those we care about is what protects each one of us. Your love for your father saved him and everyone else today. Your father's so proud of you for that, you know?"

"I do," the girl from the tower replied to her with a smile on her face, as she finally raised her head to look over at her. "Thank you, Regina. But I uh… I was hoping I could ask you for something. For help… in training me to develop my powers so they won't just accidentally shoot out of me like they did today. I was lucky, but it was also a mistake. I could very well have hurt my father and our friends just as easily. But if I can develop them, I can protect him and all of you under my own willpower. I won't have to worry about them not working."

"Unfortunately, there are always risks when it comes to using magic and it doesn't always work like we might want it to," the Good Queen answered her with complete honesty. "It can also come with a heavy price if you're not careful."

Alice nodded in understanding and then she responded, "You're right. Of course, you're right. However, I would still like to have control over my powers as much as I can. They are a part of me after all. And it isn't just my father, or you, or Robin who I care to protect. I wish to be a hero for everyone here as much as my father is."

Regina let out a quiet laugh as she smiled again, then at last she replied happily, "I would love to train you in magic. I'd be honored to, so long as your father's okay with it. I think he will be. Weaver… our Rumplestiltskin… helped train me. Now… back then we were both villains, so obviously I won't train you like he trained me. But I think we can definitely do better, and you're going to be great at it."


	14. Chapter 14

United In a Second Chance

Chapter Fourteen

Back in the past, in New Wonderland…

The witch Gothel had spoken to Morgause of, the former Good Witch of the North who had been banished from Oz by Zelena, the Wicked Witch of the West years ago, had been forced to hide herself away within an elegant, well protected cottage within the woods that was magically concealed from prying eyes and not far from her garden of plants and vegetables which included her most cherished mushrooms. Back then, she had once gone by the name Nessarose, but now to those who paid her tribute in exchange for her protection over their village not far beyond her home and garden, she was known simply as Nessa, or to most now as Nessathorn. A name those who hated her most had given her through talk and whispers within the village.

After Glinda, the Good Witch of the South had been banished from Oz, and Zelena took power over the realm, Nessarose had been forced to flee from the Emerald City to avoid being killed, as did her sister the Good With of the East. Over the years, while she remained in hiding for fear of her life, she had grown cold and cruel. And one day, upon Zelena learning that Nessarose had turned one of her only friends from when they had been children into a tin man as punishment for chopping down a tree in her woods, the Wicked Witch banished her from Oz all together, forcing Nessa to flee to numerous realms until she finally found refuge within New Wonderland.

Late one night, after years of isolation and her banishment from Oz, Nessathorn left the safety of her cottage in the middle of Wonderland's twisted forest, upon sensing that an offering had been left for her on her shrine built by the people of the village in her honor by her own decree they do so. However, this offering was nearly three weeks too early and the villagers never gave her more than what she required of them. So, she knew that either someone had desperately come to plead with her for something, or they were foolish enough to call her out in an attempt to capture her or to kill her. Either reason for them luring her out was unwise, and it would cost them dearly.

When she arrived, Nessa discovered a single long stemmed red rose lying upon the altar within the center of her shrine. For a moment, she simply stared down at it coldly until she finally reached out to pick it up. However, the moment she did so, the witch immediately became frozen where she stood, and it was then she knew that the flower's stem had been coated with squid ink.

"You'll forgive me for entrapping you in such a menial and derivative way, but I'm afraid the squid ink was hard enough as it was to get my hand on," a voice sounded from behind her, until a cloaked figure at last walked out from where he had kept himself hidden, then stepped around her and pulled down the hood he wore over his head in order to reveal himself to her. "So… you're the witch who roams around this land and forces the people of the village not far from here to pay her all of which they possess?"

"You appear to know what I am, and yet… I do not know who dares to trap me here like this," Nessa darkly replied to him as she looked straight into his own cold eyes. "Few people have ever been brave enough to turn against me and no one has ever lived upon doing so."

The stranger smugly bowed before her out of disrespect and then he answered, "Captain Hook. Or rather… just Hook now. I'm no longer the Captain of anything, nor have I been for a very long time. As for why I've come, it isn't so I can kill you. Although, the thought has most certainly crossed my mind. All witches are vile and deserve to be obliterated from this world and all others. But I need something from you. It's the only reason why you're still alive and should the magic begin to wear off, I've enough squid ink to keep you frozen here like this for however long I wish."

Nessathorn glared back at him as she retorted, "You're a fool for coming for help from a witch who would no sooner rip your heart out and crush it without a second thought."

"I'm either optimistic, or desperate… or both," the former Captain of the Jolly Roger responded to her more calmly, while he lowered his head in shame. "I hope to be long gone before the ink wears off, but should that not be the case, then I'm hoping my words will be enough to convince you to help me with what I seek. Enough to spare my life. Only… I don't ask for my life for my own sake."

"Now you have me intrigued," she coolly replied to him. "Go on. Tell me about this other person you care so much about then. What did you do to her that was so terrible?"

When Hook raised his brow while he looked at her again with confusion as to how this witch knew he had hurt someone, she added quietly, "Please… don't think that I don't recognize the look of a man who blames himself for hurting someone they love. You're not a hard man to read. It's a girl… not a woman, but a child. Your daughter perhaps?"

Knowing that it wasn't impossible for this witch to have either strong intuition, or a gift that allowed for her to see into his thoughts, as unnerving as it was, Hook didn't bother to question her any longer and he then continued, "Were I not here for the sake of someone else I care about more than anything, or anyone… I'd be more than happy to let you kill me. My life is hardly of worth to remain in existence. But… But my daughter's is. She's why I've come here. I have been looking for some sort of weapon, or magic that will help me to free her from the tower in which she's been imprisoned her whole life… because of me. And the other witch who imprisoned her. I've heard of you from whispers spread throughout the realms I've traveled to seeking such magic. And I've heard you might have such magic. Powerful enough to break through the magical barrier keeping her there."

"I'm not sure who would have told you so, but they're mistaken," the witch haughtily answered him. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Maui's fish hook!" the pirate suddenly shouted out at her in frustration. "I've heard you've stolen it away from Mother Gothel, who first stole it away from me."

He then softened his voice as he began to plead with her desperately, "You're right… I have wronged my daughter more than you will ever know, which is why I have to make it right. I need that weapon… I have to free her. I swore to her I would and even if I can't be near her, I can at the very least keep my promise to her."

Nessa looked deep into his eyes and read his thoughts once more, then she responded pompously, "I see. You have been cursed. Marked by the Curse of the Poisoned Heart, a poison of my own design and grown within this very land from its soil. Ha! Ha! Well, well, well… Isn't this a surprise?"

"You were the one who created this poison?" Hook questioned her with surprise. "It was you Gothel got it from in the first place so she could poison my heart?"

"Indeed I have," she cruelly replied to him. "I don't care much for Mother Gothel and I abhor her views on humanity… even if I too despise the likes such as you myself, but I have to admit that I do like some of her notions."

The witch then thought for a moment while Hook struggled to grasp what he had just been told, until he glared at her darkly once more as she smiled upon knowing there was no cure for the Curse of the Poisoned Heart like she intended, and finally spoke to him deceptively saying, "In my garden… beyond the hills to the north, grows the toadstools in which the poison within your heart originates from. The poison is the liquid contained within it. I see that the hate for me in your eyes has grown deeper. You wish to kill me. Spare my life… and perhaps you will find someone else who might be able to create an antidote for your affliction from the toadstools poison. As for your fish hook… I'm afraid I cannot help you. It was stolen from me by someone else. I never saw their face. For all I know, it is once again in Gothel's hands."

Hook considered his options as he asked, "Who could help me with a cure? Surely, if you can't, yet you deal in growing poisonous toadstools, then you know of someone who could save your life should you yourself become poisoned. Otherwise, I doubt you would be foolish enough to create such evils."

"It's possible that the Dark One… Rumplestiltskin would be able to create such a cure from such evil," Nessathorn haughtily answered him, sensing his strong hatred for the monster from the moment she spoke his name and then smiled.

"No… no… I won't ever go back there to confront him again," the Captain curtly responded with a shake of his head. "I took that dark path once despite my every instinct screaming at me not to, and in so doing I abandoned my daughter and my pride allowed for Gothel to poison my heart. That's why I'm to blame for my daughter's imprisonment. Why she will forever despise me. Surely there has to be someone else."

She sneered coldly, "Then finding that someone else is up to you. Leave now. Take your mushroom and go. Before I kill you."

Hook looked at her unfeelingly while he whispered, "Right now, you can't. You're lucky I've lost the taste for blood. It's the only reason why you're still alive."

And with that said, Killian walked away from her, leaving Nessathorn still trapped by the squid ink keeping her firmly in place. However, it wasn't much longer before the magic wore off and she herself was finally freed. Once she was able to move, the witch waved her hand to vanish from her shrine so she could poof herself to her garden, where she planned to make the pirate who threatened her pay for his arrogance and gall to ask for her help.


	15. Chapter 15

United In a Second Chance

Chapter Fifteen

Back in the present day…

Upon her arrival in Storybrooke, Morgause found the cave in which the Snow Queen had once hidden herself away from everyone, and chose to make it her own lair where she would be safely hidden away from everyone as well, since no one would suspect Ingrid's lair to become another villains' lair again. The cave was no longer frozen over like it had once been. Instead, the entrance was now concealed by hanging vines and the inside looked like most other caves. Dark with the exception of the numerous flame lit torches now lining the walls, and eerie.

After she had vanished from the Jolly Roger, the sorceress returned again to her lair and immediately used her magic to ignite a fire beneath her cauldron set up within the center of the wide open room so she could begin to make herself a new potion, with Rogers' blood still coating the dagger she had stolen from the ship's deck as one of its most important ingredients.

When the fire was hot enough and the water within the cauldron had begun to boil as it was meant to do, she began to toss in the rest of the ingredients needed, including witchbane, an eye of newt, snake tongue, and a few others as well. At last she summoned the bloodied dagger into one of her hands, melted the blade down until it became a pool of liquid metal blended with Rogers' blood, then Morgause controlled the liquid floating within the air before her eyes and finally allowed it to splash into the brewing potion.

Morgause then summoned a chair made from the wood of the trees within the forest surrounding her lair and took a seat while she waited for her potion to finish while she began to stare down into the flames of the fire before her. Upon doing so, she became lost within her thoughts, as she remembered a moment shared between her and the other four witches within Gothel's coven. A moment, when she asked them what they had been required to do for their own trials.

Seraphina was the first of the sisters to share her experience during her own trial, as she spoke softly saying, "My trial was different than the rest of our sisters' trials had been. Gothel needed to know she could trust me to be a true witch immediately, because I had been there when the girls whom she slaughtered at the ball along with everyone else had humiliated her. So to prove myself to her, Gothel asked me to kill everyone who lived throughout Lord Adriel's entire kingdom after the ball. Lord Adriel was Isla's father. So to do so, I created a plague and spread it throughout the land, and everyone died, as did few others beyond the kingdom until I finally destroyed the plague before it could spread further. Gothel and I didn't wish to risk the lives of those who would, and who could have potentially become our sisters once the Lord's kingdom and the people living within was no more."

Madame Leota looked at her as she responded, "Quite impressive, sister dear. But the Lord's kingdom was small in comparison to most others. I on the other hand have succeeded in killing thousands, if not millions of people which is why Gothel considers me to be among the most powerful beings in all the realms."

"You see, Morgause… I didn't just kill innocent people to prove my worth within our coven," she continued when she turned to face the sorceress again. "I am a medium and because I am, I am able to foresee the future. And once long ago, I foresaw a great war between humans and ogres. The very first of many, of what eventually became known throughout all the realms as the Ogre Wars. No one ever knew how the first war got started, except for Gothel and I. As I was the one who started it. I slaughtered a number of the monsters and made it look like the humans committed my horrendous acts. I then did the same with a small village not far from the lands where the ogres roamed and made it appear as though they had murdered all the people who lived there. The ogres attacked one village out of revenge, and then another, and another… so on and so forth. The humans fought back. It was brilliant. I didn't know it back when I first foresaw the future of the great war, but later I learned that the future I saw then was my own."

"My test wasn't nearly so difficult," Sage replied as she looked between her sisters. "But it was enough to prove to Gothel I deserved to be one of your sisters. I was young and my powers were weak at the time. Gothel wanted to see that I had potential. Gratefully, I slaughtered a small swarm of fairies who had heard of a coven of sister witches forming and came to try to wipe us out, before they could send word that we existed back to the fairies' leader… the Blue Fairy. Madame Leota foresaw of their coming and Gothel asked me to destroy them. I was accepted into the coven that very night."

And finally, Hilda spoke up as well as she said haughtily, "I had been killing children and fighting to protect the lives of witches for years before I ever met Gothel. She had heard of my deeds and sought me out. She then asked me to kidnap the children of the Kings and Queens of half a dozen kingdoms in order to end their bloodlines. So they would no longer have heirs to pass down their kingdoms and their titles to. Eventually, some of the royals from the kingdoms far and wide became too afraid to try to produce any heirs and few of the kingdoms even fell either in the Ogre Wars, or upon being attacked by other kingdoms."

Seraphina then looked to the sorceress again as she asked her, "And what is it you have been asked to accomplish to prove you are one of us, sister?"

"For now… it is none of your concerns, sisters," Gothel suddenly answered for Morgause before she could tell them. "However, in the morning you will all find out, as I will need your help for what lies ahead. Madame Leota… for what Morgause has been tasked with, I ask that you go with her to watch over her. Do not interfere, unless you feel the need to. Just not to save her life. Should she fall at the hands of these wretched humans, it means that she will have failed me and she is not meant to become one of us."

"Of course, sister," the maestro medium replied with a nod of her head in understanding.

Sage then looked between Hilda and Seraphina as she questioned their leader, "And what of us, Mother Gothel?"

The tree nymph smiled at them while she answered her, "The rest of you will come with me. We're going to see to it that Nessathorn cannot interfere with Morgause' test. It is only fair."

"I say we kill her," Hilda darkly retorted. "She defied us. She refused to become one of us. She deserves to die."

"And she will," Gothel cruelly stated, then walked away, followed closely by most of her sisters, except for Madame Leota, who was quickly pulled back upon feeling Morgause grabbing her arm.

When the medium looked at her sternly, the sorceress questioned her, "Tell me… can you foresee everything? Do you know all of your futures and what will come of you if you all succeed in wiping out humanity? Can you see what will come of me in this test of mine?"

Leota sighed and then she whispered, "I cannot foresee everything. My gift, though it has become developed as far as it can be, and my powers are stronger than most witches and magical beings, they are all still imperfect at times. Like any magic is. I do not know yet what will come of you, as I do not yet know what will come of us all once we succeed. But I have faith in Gothel. And that is all I need. Prove to her you are powerful and can do as is necessary, and you will have everything your heart truly desires. Including your revenge."

At last, Morgause broke from her thoughts when her memory ended and she discovered that her potion at last had finished brewing. She smiled as she carefully stirred her brew before she snuffed out the flames, then picked up a small vial to bottle it so she could proceed with the next part of her plan when the time was right. Her plan to make sure that Rogers would not stop her from freeing Gothel.


	16. Chapter 16

United In a Second Chance

Chapter Sixteen

After Alice and Regina finished talking about what was bothering the young woman from Wonderland and other places, the Good Queen stood from where she sat on the boulder beside her friend's daughter, as Alice eagerly jumped up from the boulder as well to stand in front of her, so that Regina could immediately begin her training. Both women were anxious to return to the Emerald Palace, where they knew that Rogers was waiting worryingly for his daughter to return. However, Alice hoped that Regina could give at least one test before they left, just to make sure that her powers bursting out of her earlier that day wasn't just some fluke again like she believed her summoning Maui's fish hook to her father within the snowglobe had been.

"All right… you really want to be sure your magic is still inside of you?" the former Evil Queen questioned her friend's daughter upon thinking up an idea on how she could begin to help her, then suddenly poofed both herself and Alice from the ground, up inside of the tower where Alice had lived trapped within for the first seventeen years of her life. "I know that this place holds bad memories for you."

"They're not all bad memories," Alice sadly answered her while they both looked around the room. "I lived alone here for a long time and even when Papa lived here with me, I longed to be free. But Papa did so much for me and we had fun adventures of our own right here. He taught me so much about life, about the world and its histories. He taught me how to swordfight with these wooden swords he made with his own hand, how to paint, how to play chess of course… And he brought me all kinds of gifts from all over the outside worlds between his searches for magic that could free me from this tower. Delectable foods from all over, sands from the ocean, paints of all colors and canvasses to paint on, dolls and stuffed animals, an elegant tea set, and a beautiful chess board with pieces we practically wore out because we played every night before he would put me to bed. Papa used to sing me beautiful lullabies. All the while, feeling so defeated himself. I know how much he blamed himself for me being trapped there. And not just after Gothel forced him away when she poisoned his heart. He even continued to have food and all these beautiful things like clothes and toys delivered to me afterwards. With help from Smee, or he would risk doing so himself. Papa spoiled me as much as he possibly could to try to make up for his mistakes and… for him it was never enough. I tried to be brave and strong for him, but I didn't always make it easy for him."

Regina smiled at Alice while she spoke about all Rogers had done for her, then she looked at her with sympathy as she replied, "Children never are easy on their parents. Henry most certainly wasn't always easy to handle. As you now know. But let's try not to focus on the past. Instead, let's focus on your first test. I want you to find a new way to escape from this tower. This time… don't wake up your friend out there guarding over you. Try to physically use your magic. Be creative. Just think carefully about what you want to do, and your magic will come to you. I know you can do this, Alice. I believe in you. And so does your father, without a shadow of doubt. You just have to believe in yourself."

Regina swiftly poofed herself away, then Alice ran over to the window and watched as her friend reappeared once again on the ground in front of the tower, before she suddenly called out to her, "Believe in yourself, Alice! Let your magic flow through you!"

Alice nodded, then took a few steps back while she thought about how she could possibly escape. She looked around the room again, then stared out at the trees surrounding the tower, as well as up at the birds flying in the sky above. However, when she moved forward again to stand at the window, she looked down at where she and Regina had been sitting a few minutes earlier and then finally she reached out her hand while she thought about the boulder and the birds.

All of a sudden, the boulder magically began to lift from within the ground where it had been planted firmly within the earth since before Storybrooke was ever created, and Regina watched with awe as it then floated through the air until it rose just beneath the window so that Alice could step out on top of it. She hesitated only for a moment, then thought of Regina's words to her about believing in herself and how she and her father believed in her as well, and without further hesitation, she stepped out of the window onto the boulder. Once she did so, she slowly floated down as if she were floating upon a cloud and when it finally touched down on the ground again where it came from, Alice swiftly jumped down from the boulder to stand in front of the Good Queen with a big smile on her face.

"You did it," Regina proudly said to her as she embraced the young woman, then pulled back a little while she continued to look into Alice's eyes. "That was absolutely incredible."

"Indeed it was," Rogers then responded when he suddenly appeared before them after he had walked out to the tower upon suspecting it might be where she might have run off to, while he smiled proudly at his daughter as well. "Hello, Starfish. I hope I'm not… that I'm not…"

Alice rushed over to embrace her father as she wrapped her arms around him and then she answered him, "You're not intruding, Papa. I'm so happy you're here. And that you saw what I did just now. Regina has begun to train me in my magic. I didn't think I could do anything like that, but she said you believed in me. That she believed in me too and I suddenly… felt like anything magical was possible."

The former detective looked down into her eyes when she looked up at him again through joyful tears and with a smile on her face, then he whispered lovingly, "For you, everything is possible. I've always believed in you, Starfish. I always will. And if you really want to learn how to develop your powers, then you should. I only want for you to be happy."

"Thank you… Regina," he then added when he turned to look over at the woman who had been his friend since they'd gotten to know one another long before the curse ever hit them and then again in Hyperion Heights. "For helping Alice. For helping her to see just how special she really is beyond my own love for her."

"You're welcome," she sincerely replied to him and smiled. "But it was all her. I only gave her a few words of encouragement and reminded her just how much you love her."

They both then began to stare at one another affectionately for a moment without really realizing they were doing so, until Regina suddenly snapped out of her trance as she cleared her throat and spoke self-consciously saying, "Uh… Look, I should go. I'll leave you two to talk…"

However, Rogers swiftly reached out to grab her by her hand as he responded, "Please don't go. I…"

"It's okay, Papa," Alice kindly assured her father while she smiled at him when he turned to look over at her again, as she knew exactly what it was he was struggling to express to the woman beside them. "If you're worried about what I feel, don't be. You deserve to be happy every bit as much as I do. Regina too. And I absolutely approve."

"I'm not sure I understand," the Good Queen said again while she looked nervously between Alice and Rogers in confusion. "You don't mean…"

At last, Rogers stepped closer to her and reached down to take both of her hands into his own while he answered softly, "I may be out of line… In fact, I'm almost certain that I am, since you're the Queen of our land now and you probably don't feel for me… not nearly as much as I believe I've begun to feel for you. I think it started a long time ago, even before Gothel cursed us all, but I didn't really see it as more than just the affection I felt for you as my close friend… Not until the night you came to speak with me inside my hideaway a few days before you cast your curse to bring us all here. Forgive me for being too forward."

Regina just looked at him with surprise until he finished, then at last she leaned in close and kissed him tenderly, showing that she too had begun to feel more for him than just their friendship as well. However, she suddenly pulled away from him a few moments later and Rogers immediately apologized to her.

She just shook her head while she replied sadly, "No… please don't apologize. It isn't you. It's… it's me. You're a good man and I do… like you. It's just that I… well, I'm not so sure this is a good idea. I know it's been a long time since I've lost Robin and Daniel too, but I… I'm just not sure I can risk my heart breaking all over again if something were to ever happen to you too. I'm sorry, Rogers. Alice."

"Regina…" he attempted to respond to her, until she suddenly poofed herself away, then Rogers just bowed his head until his daughter reached out to take hold of his hand that wasn't a prosthetic, and smiled at him when he looked over at her. "I pushed her… too fast and too soon. I never should have said anything."

"She deserved to know how you really feel about her," Alice firmly answered him. "And it's not like she doesn't feel the same for you as you feel for her. She said so herself and she kissed you, Papa. I've also seen the way she looks at you when you're not looking. Don't worry so much. In time, she'll come around. I'm sure of it. Now, come on… why don't you and I go back to your home and play a little chess? It always helps you clear your head."

Her father smiled at her again and then he stated, "Sounds wonderful, Starfish."

A little after midnight…

Rogers came home once again from a late dinner at the Royal Castle after he and Alice spent the rest of the day together, then met up with Henry and Ella with Lucy, Emma and Killian with Hope, David and Snow with Neal, and Sir Henry as well. When they finished eating, then talked for awhile longer, the former detective said goodnight to his daughter and to their friends before he finally walked home alone like he did most nights.

After he was dressed down and made sure that his house's doors and windows were all locked upon feeling a little unnerved, he finally laid down on his bed and slowly fell asleep. At first, he slept peacefully. However, it wasn't much longer before his nightmares like he had the night before returned. They were different, and yet they felt the same as the others did. As though they were once again a warning that something terrible was about to happen.

 _When his nightmares began, Rogers saw his old self within the New Enchanted Forest standing a few feet away from Regina who was sitting on a log while they talked, then finally Hook looked down at her worryingly while he asked, "_ _This tower that you went to… you said it was in ruins?"_

 _"The place was completely destroyed," she sadly replied to him, then he glanced down in despair, thinking for a moment that his daughter was dead and that he had failed her worse than he could have ever imagined._

 _"_ _Papa?" Alice then uttered when she suddenly appeared behind him again like she had done for real years ago, as Hook immediately spun around to look at her upon hearing her precious voice._

 _He stared at her in disbelief while he whispered, "Alice? Alice, is it really you?"_

 _She began to laugh as his daughter happily responded, "Yes… yes, it's me._ _But is it really you? You're… you're so young."_

 _"_ _It was magic," Rogers heard himself answer her, until he suddenly grew afraid upon remembering that his heart was poisoned and saw himself immediately back away from her. "I just… Alice, what… what happened? How did you, uh… How did you escape the tower without me?"_

 _"_ _Well, it's a long story, Papa," Alice began to reply to him like she did before, until all of a sudden, everything changed and that happy moment, even before it had become a real nightmare all those years ago for both Hook and Alice, suddenly turned dark and the strangeness of Rogers' nightmare now only worsened, when the young woman in his mind turned cold while she looked at him darkly as though she hated him with every fiber of her being._

Finally, she spoke again cruelly saying, "But I did escape… no thanks to you. I discovered I had magic. My mother's magic. She might have left me to die, but so did you. You are no better than she is."

Still trapped within the thralls of his nightmare, while Rogers once again began to writhe as he struggled to awaken, his old self looked at his daughter fearfully and questioned her, "Why are you saying this? This isn't… this isn't like you. Starfish, I…"

"You what… tried?" she angrily asked him. "Had you not let your damned pride get in your way of protecting me like you should have, Mother Gothel never would have been able to poison your heart and we would have always been together. You're worse than she is. Your precious honor… that pirate honor was more important to you than I am!"

"Alice… no," he pleaded with her. "No, please… you are the most precious person to me. I love you. I always have loved you."

Alice just sneered at him, until Gothel suddenly appeared before him in his daughter's place when she transformed herself, then the tree nymph responded brutally, "You've only ever just failed her, Captain. How can you stand there, and call that true love? Alice is better off without you. She's better off in my charge. And soon… she will be."

Hook glared at her darkly as he immediately shouted, "No! I'll never let you get your hands on her again, Gothel. I'll be damned before I ever allow you to harm her ever again!"

"You can try, but you will only continue to fail her," she cruelly answered him. "Just as you always have. Again… and again… and again."

"Again and again…" another familiar voice strangely sounded before him, as Rogers at last awoke from the throes of his mind while he suddenly shot up from his bed with a frightened gasp, drenched in cold sweat.

The former detective struggled to get his breathing back under control while he looked around his room that was still dark, for any signs of someone being there before him upon feeling another presence inside the room with him, especially upon hearing a voice he somehow knew didn't belong to Gothel, or another demon within his mind.

All of a sudden, he finally spotted a cloaked figure sitting in the chair across from his bed, with a hood pulled up over their head, and Rogers immediately reached over to the nightstand so he could turn on the light of his new lamp he had gotten earlier that day, since he had smashed his other one, then swiftly pulled his gun from the nightstand drawer before he aimed it directly at the intruder while he curtly called out to her, "Who the devil are you? How did you get in here?"

The voice from beneath the hood replied, "I'm surprised you don't recognize me by my dark magic, Hook. Or well… it's Rogers now… isn't it?"

"You're… you're the woman who ran into me the night before," Rogers suspiciously responded to her, keeping his weapon trained on her as he stood up from his bed and walked further out into the open, while he struggled to think back and barely recognized the tattered cloak she wore. "The woman who kept walking by without even bothering to turn back around."

"Yes… I am, but try to think a little harder," she answered him, still without barely any movement from where she continued to sit before him. "Think back to years and years ago… to when you've felt the same kind of fear you felt within your mind both tonight and last night as well. You know who I am."

And then, Rogers glared at her as he whispered darkly, "Morgause."

The sorceress smiled when she finally reached up to pull down her hood to reveal her true form. A woman who had once been beautiful, and was now deformed by the scars along the right side of her face upon becoming badly burned during her test to become another witch within Gothel's coven.

At last, she rose from the chair as well to stand before him, while Rogers looked at her coldly and suddenly attempted to shoot her as he clicked off the safety on his gun. Yet before he could even fire the bullet, Morgause swiftly used her magic to pull the weapon from his hand and swiftly threw the small vial containing her potion down at his feet to break open the vial to release her magic. The moment she did so, the liquid within it strangely took new form as it grew and rose from the floor to surround him until it solidified into a metal cage that now surrounded her enemy.

Rogers attempted to grab hold of the bars to try to break out until he was immediately shocked upon touching them, then he shouted angrily, "What the hell is this?!"

"It's a prison of my own design, made to keep you trapped within it so that I can go out to do as I need to without your interference," the sorceress smugly replied to him, then slowly began to circle around him while he followed her with his eyes. "And I used your own blood, so that only your daughter will be able to set you free. However, I'm afraid that poor Alice is about to become too distracted to worry about freeing her father. Sadly, after what I have planned for her, she most likely won't survive."

"No!" the former pirate angrily shouted out at her while he banged up against the bars keeping him imprisoned despite the shocks they gave off at his attempt to escape. "If you harm my daughter… I swear to you, Morgause…"

She suddenly cut him off when she haughtily began to laugh until she calmed herself again and then responded snidely, "You will do nothing. There isn't anything you can do to me anymore, Hook. I've grown much stronger than I was when we first met. Fourteen years ago, I was a woman who was weak. I had barely begun to learn the full extent of my powers when I tried to prove myself to Gothel. Long before she came to me, I had attempted to seek out another great Sorcerer who called himself Merlin. For his guidance and training. But he rejected me because he saw a darkness within me. A darkness that I didn't understand then, until I lost my son. And then, you prevented me from becoming a part of Gothel's coven. Gave me these scars and it's thanks to you that another person I had come to care about is dead! I may not be able to save her, but I can free Gothel and I will. With your daughter's help."

Rogers spoke again darkly saying, "She's well protected. You won't get near her. And she'll never fall for your trickery!"

"I once underestimated you, but now… it's you who is underestimating me," Morgause smugly retorted once more. "Try to escape all you want. You'll only continue to hurt yourself and no one will know that you're missing until long after I've finished. I'm so sorry for your loss."

"Morgause!" he then shouted out to her, until she suddenly vanished within a cloud of smoke without so much as another word. "No! Morgause!"


	17. Chapter 17

United In a Second Chance

Chapter Seventeen

Somewhere in the middle of Sherwood Forest…

Robin sat next to her brother Roland around a campfire, along with Little John, Allan A Dale, Much, Friar Tuck, and the rest of the Merry Men. After a long day spent hunting, the men and their former leader's daughter talked while they ate and celebrated a job well done since they had succeeded in making enough kills to feed them for some time and simply for being together again. While Robin was the only woman among them, the men all happily welcomed her as one of their own. And she was definitely her father's daughter.

Roland, who was now twenty-three years of age, hadn't lived in Storybrooke since he was only seven years old just after his father died. And especially since the town had grown significantly because of all the realms becoming merged together into one land, he hardly recognized anything. Nor did John or the others despite having been lived in Storybrooke before years ago. So, Robin was happy to show them all around and to take the lead on their day's hunt.

The Merry Men had gone on for a long while, telling Robin story after story about their wild adventures and daring heists they've pulled off with her father against the Sheriff of Nottingham, Guy of Gisborne, and their soldiers, as well as a number of tales from after they left Storybrooke years ago, until Roland at last spoke to his sister again when he turned his head to look at her saying, "Well… I think we've pretty much talked your ears off all night speaking about all of us. How about you, sis? I mean… you've told us all about Alice and how happy you are with her. We couldn't be happier for you. But how about you share with us some of your own stories. After growing up in Storybrooke, surely you have some great ones to tell. Your archery skills match our father's, but… do you have magic? Like… your mother?"

Robin looked forward into the fire as she shook her head, then she replied, "Actually, not anymore I don't. I used to. But I was never very good with it. At most, I could brew a few simple potions and few other tricks. And years ago, I used to blame my mother for failing to train me how to become better. But she was always afraid to because of what her lust for power did to her. You see… she selflessly sacrificed her own power once so she could save everyone here and to help defeat the Black Fairy. I'll tell you about her another time. But my point is, Mom didn't want me to become anything like she used to be. Wicked. So instead, she sheltered me from magic and eventually I started to go behind her back to try to learn it myself with some help from a few of my friends, who also had magic from their own parents."

"I regret how I treated my mother back then," she continued again after she took a moment to think back. "It was wrong and I know how much I hurt her by trying to become a witch like she had been. But what's worse… is that I once stupidly chose another witch over my own mother because this witch claimed she could give me exactly what I thought that I wanted back then. She was a very evil witch. Were it not for Alice's father reminding my mother how to fight against Mother Gothel without magic to save me, I wouldn't be here right now. Mom fought with love, not magic. It was… She was amazing and in that moment, I never loved her more."

Ten years ago, in the New Enchanted Forest…

 _After she had run away to join with Mother Gothel once the tree nymph had had summoned her from Storybrooke, Robin walked around and studied the strange and fascinating objects within the curio shop known to most witches and few others like Captain Hook from the Wish Realm, as Memento Mori. While she did so, Gothel stood behind a curtain while she spoke with another witch, whose body had died and yet her spirit remained behind within a crystal ball from which she could communicate with her living sister._

 _"_ _Creepies and crawlies, toads in a pond," the archer could hear the witch without a body begin to chant, as she continued to roam around inside another room, failing to see or hear her mother and Hook enter the shop in search for her until they made themselves known._ _"_ _Let there be music from regions beyond! Wizards and witches, wherever you dwell, give us a hint, by ringing a bell!"_

 _As soon as a bell rang from behind the curtain, Zelena walked up to it to pull the curtain back, as she and the pirate Captain suddenly came face to face with Leota and the witch who Zelena believed to have kidnapped her daughter, while Hook swiftly pulled his sword and she immediately questioned Gothel about Robin angrily, "Where is she?"_

 _The witch within the crystal ball looked between the heroes as she responded to Zelena coldly, "You dare interrupt my séance. I am Madame Leota, maestro Medium."_

 _"Do I look like I give a damn?" Hook snidely answered her, then raised his eyes again to look upon the woman who had poisoned his heart so that he couldn't be with his own daughter._

 _"Miss me, did you?" Gothel smugly replied to him._

 _However, Zelena asked her again more angrily, "What did you do to my daughter?"_

 _The Captain looked at the nymph again while he said coldly, "Give us the girl, and then we'll leave. You and I will have our reckoning another day."_

 _"Leave?" Madame Leota questioned, then made the doorway vanish from before them so that the heroes were suddenly trapped, while Hook returned to where the door had been and began to bang on the wall to try to find it again. "How? This chamber has no windows and no doors. Which offers you this chilling challenge… to find a way out."_

 _"Of course… there's always my way," she darkly added, then suddenly discharged streaks of magic like lightning from her crystal ball against the pirate as she attempted to kill him, and Hook grunted in pain while Zelena could only stand by and do nothing to help him._

 _At last, Robin stepped out into the open as she used her own power to break off Leota's to protect her mother's and aunt's friend from the Wish Realm, whom she didn't yet know aside from the version of him she knew back home in Storybrooke, and sternly called out, "Stop!"_

 _Once Hook collapsed to the floor in a heap and she saw he'd be alright, the archer then walked over to Zelena while she asked her curtly, "Mother, what are you doing here?"_

 _"I'm here to save you from the witch that kidnapped you," the former Wicked Witch of the West responded to her in frustration._

 _"Nobody kidnapped me!" Robin angrily retorted. "I ran away."_

 _Zelena looked at her daughter in disbelief as she asked worryingly, "Why would you do something so idiotic?"_

 _The young woman looked at her mother coldly as she answered her, "I am my own person. One you refuse to let me grow into."_

 _"I may not get my own daughter back today, Gothel," Hook darkly protested when he again confronted the witch whom he hated more than even Rumplestiltskin. "But I'll be damned if I let you wrap your vines around another one."_

 _"Why should any of us decide her fate," Mother Gothel then replied as she looked at him smugly, then turned to look at Robin. "You put yourself in a position to learn everything your heart desires to know. Now I put the power in your hands. You can end your journey anytime you wish. Choose now, which mother knows best."_

 _When she finished speaking, Robin turned again to face her mother and used her magic to swiftly make the doorway reappear, before finally she spoke cruelly saying, "Your journey is out that door."_

 _She then foolishly walked over to stand beside the villainess as she continued, "Mine… is here with her."_

 _"This isn't over," Hook resolutely said to Gothel again after he watched Zelena turn away in defeat to leave the shop brokenhearted without her daughter._

 _"Feels over to me," the evil witch maliciously responded to him with a smug grin, then at last the Captain followed after his friend, unbeknownst to Robin at the time so that he could convince her mother to return to fight for her._

 _A short time later, while Robin continued to study the artifacts within the shop, Mother Gothel stood behind the young woman where she had set down her father's bow and quiver of arrows that include the one he had taken from Rumplestiltskin's castle a long time ago, and studied her closely before reaching out to touch the special arrow, then the nymph finally stated to her again, "Legend has it this arrow was enchanted to always hit its mark."_

 _Not knowing this already, Robin answered, "No way! Really?"_

 _"This place is so cool," she then added again as she turned to look all around her, but stopped to look back at Gothel again. "Though, I did think there'd be more cauldrons."_

 _"Dear… cauldrons are for amateurs," the cruel witch snidely replied to her, then turned away and walked back behind the curtain to where a pentagram was painted in red upon the floor around an orchid centered within its center._

 _However, Robin just scoffed and then she uttered, "Typical. My mother has dozens of them just laying around. Though… she mostly just uses them to pot plants now. So pathetic."_

 _Then, Robin turned to follow Gothel as she looked to her admiringly and added, "You'll teach me to be ten times the witch she was, won't you?"_

 _"Of course," the villainess darkly responded to her, then motioned for Robin to come closer to her. "Just step up to the Sacred Orchid, and we can begin."_

 _"Whoa," the amateur witch answered worryingly as she did like she was asked to, and slowly turned in a circle to study the magic about to be performed. "This looks… intense."_

 _Gothel replied smugly, "It is. But don't fret."_

 _When she then raised an amulet with a red jewel in its center within her hand as Robin turned again to face her, the girl questioned her nervously, "What's that?"_

 _"This is the Resurrection Amulet," Mother Gothel haughtily responded to her as she raised the amulet higher to show it to her. "With it… one can resurrect a soul that has not yet fully surrendered to the other side. Today, you and I are going to use it to bring my dear Leota back to the realm of the living."_

 _"I get to do a resurrection spell?" Robin asked her in awe._

 _The tree nymph only mumbled, "Mm-hmm."_

 _Without understanding the consequences at all of what such dark magic was about to cost her, the archer stated excitedly, "Awesome. So, what do I have to do?"_

 _"Just stand right where you are," Gothel answered her._

 _"And die!" Madame Leota then darkly exclaimed, just as Gothel summoned the Resurrection Amulet's power within it and began to drain Robin's life force from her body while the girl grunted in pain._

 _When she suddenly collapsed to her knees, Robin struggled to keep her eyes on the villainess while she cried out again, "Aaaah! Why are you doing this to me? So, I was just a sacrifice. I thought you were gonna teach me."_

 _Mother Gothel retorted cruelly, "Teach you? You're a middling witch at best, cursed with more ambition than talent. Leota is one of the most powerful beings in all the realms. She's critical to my plan and a perfect choice for our coven. And you get to restore her. Isn't that beautiful?"_

 _"Stop!" Zelena then called out to the witch when she suddenly appeared before her again, with Hook just behind her. "My daughter's life is not for sale."_

 _"I already warned you, Witch," the pirate angrily continued, then swiftly pulled his sword from its scabbard once more and raised its point aimed directly at the villainess threatening Robin's life. "You want to fight, I'll gladly give you one."_

 _However, Gothel just sneered at him as she snidely replied, "You know… I enjoyed our last tussle, Captain."_

 _When he started towards her to try to strike her down, the former Wicked Witch immediately reached out to protectively hold her friend back as she grabbed him by his shoulders and cried out, "Wait!"_

 _"Take me instead," Zelena continued once she turned back to the villainess in order to plead for her daughter's life. "I'll pay the price. Just let her go."_

 _"You're aware she wants nothing to do with you?" Mother Gothel coldly answered her._

 _However, the powerless witch steadfastly replied in anger, "I don't care. I'm her mother."_

 _All of a sudden, Zelena swiftly bent down to pull Robin out of the circle while she remained to take her place, and the villainess looked at her as she responded, "So be it."_

 _"No!" Robin immediately shouted once Gothel began to rip away her mother's life like the witch had started to do to her too, as Hook held the young woman back to keep her from charging forward. "No, Mom. This is my fault! I should pay the price."_

 _"Robin, run far away from here," Zelena pleaded with her daughter as she sobbed through her anguish she felt and then collapsed to her knees. "Go! Go live your life."_

 _The girl's voice broke as she pleaded, "Mother, please!"_

 _However, her mother answered her, "I love you."_

 _"I love you," Robin lovingly replied to her as well through her own sobs. "I love you so much. I am so sorry."_

 _"Release them, Witch," Hook suddenly shouted out to the nymph killing his friend upon seeing her smile down on Zelena haughtily. "I won't let you separate another parent from their child."_

 _The archer glared darkly at the woman who lied to her, until she at last pulled herself free from the Captain's arms and rushed just beyond the curtain, while Gothel kept her eyes on Hook as she responded to him smugly, "Keep turning up on my doorstep, Captain… and a girl might start to think you're sweet on her."_

 _All of a sudden, an arrow flew through the air and immediately struck the amulet from the witch's hand and Hook swiftly lunged to the floor to grab it before Gothel could, then Robin appeared before them again as she said angrily, "I know what you're thinking. Is the arrow really enchanted or am I just that good? Though I may just be a middling witch, I seem to have a knack for this archery thing. Do you want to find out?"_

 _Both Mother Gothel and Madame Leota glared at her darkly, then the witches at last vanished from before them upon seeing that they had been defeated. Once they were gone, Robin just dropped her father's bow and its magical arrow on the floor beside her, then rushed forward to help her real mother._

 _"Oh… my God," she fearfully and ashamedly cried out to her while she struggled to help her stand again, as Zelena breathed heavily through her pain that was finally subsiding. "You were gonna risk your life for me? That's insane!"_

 _"I am your mother," Zelena lovingly answered her as Hook watched on. "It is my job to do insane things for you."_

 _Her daughter shook her head sadly as she replied, "I'm so sorry I doubted you."_

 _The former Wicked Witch responded again, "I'm so sorry I didn't support you. But I will from now on, no matter what you want to do with your life."_

 _"All I really want to do right now is get out of here," the archer nervously answered her again once she glanced around them, and Zelena just chuckled before both women hugged one another in a firm embrace, then together, the three heroes left Memento Mori at last._

In the present…

"Were it not for my mother… I would have died," Robin at last continued once she finished sharing with Roland and her father's friends how it was she had come to lose her magic and then briefly explained to them how Zelena had gotten her own back. "It was only fair that I should give the magic within the amulet that was drained from both me and her, to my mother so that it could restore her own magic that she sacrificed for others. It was the least I could do to repay her for being here for me, when I so foolishly thought otherwise. She's an amazing woman now, Roland. She isn't the Wicked Witch that most people here knew her to be. She isn't the woman who…"

Roland finished for her sadly in reply, "Who allowed for Hades to kill our father, you mean?"

For a moment, he looked down until the young man raised his head up to look into her eyes as Robin reached out to lay her hand down on his knee, and then he said again with understanding, "That was unfair. You're right. She isn't. I know she isn't. I once gave her a feather from one of my father's arrows to give to Regina, and I could see the remorse for what she did, as well as her love for you and her sister in her eyes back then. I hope she knows I hold no ill will towards her. Perhaps tomorrow… I'll go talk with her. And I'd like to talk to Hook too. To thank him for telling Zelena exactly what she needed to hear in order to get her to go back for you. I'm sure she would have anyways, but…"

"Mom would love to see you," the young woman responded while she smiled at him before she finally stood up from the rock on which she'd been sitting so she could get ready to leave. "I'm afraid I have to get back home. Alice is probably wondering where I am. But do come into town tomorrow. Meet us for breakfast… at Granny's. I know you remember where her diner is?"

"Of course, I remember," he proudly answered her. "I may not remember where a lot of places and things are, but I do remember going with our father and Regina to Granny's a lot. And now I'm old enough to drink more than just hot cocoa with cinnamon, orange juice, or milk. I'll see you in the morning then. Good night, Sis."

She smiled at him once more, then took off running through the forest and made her way back home to where she suspected Alice was waiting for her, wondering why she was coming home so late. Little did the archer know that once she arrived, the love of her life wouldn't be at home waiting for her when she arrived, or that she was about to be in danger.


	18. Chapter 18

United In a Second Chance

Chapter Eighteen

Inside Emma's and Killian's home…

It was just after four o'clock in the morning, when Emma walked quietly downstairs upon finding the other side of the bed she shared with her husband still empty ever since Killian had gotten up nearly two hours earlier to take care of their daughter once Hope awakened and began to cry. He always awoke to care for her so that his wife could continue to sleep, unless of course Hope woke up because she was hungry and needed to be fed. And Emma was grateful to him for being so willing to miss out on his own sleep most nights, but he always assured her he was used to many sleepless nights and sadly, she knew just how true it was. But tonight, Killian didn't come back up to bed and when she found him sitting in the dark on the window seat with Hope asleep within his arms while he stared out the window at the moon shining down over the ocean's waves in the distance, the moonlight allowed her to see he was deeply troubled by something and that he was trying to allow the ocean to help calm his mind.

"It's a beautiful night," the woman who loved her pirate gently whispered to him as she approached him, then comfortingly reached out to wrap her arms around his shoulders. "But the beauty of the ocean and the full moon on the waves isn't all you're seeing… are they?"

"No… I'm afraid not, Swan," Killian softly responded back, then turned his head to look up into his wife's eyes. "I'm sorry if my absence has kept you awake. I guess I've lost track of time since Hope fell back asleep. How long…"

Before he could finish, Emma sat down on the window seat in front of him, then she answered him quietly, "It's a little after four now. What's troubling you, Killian? It isn't your fight against Black Beard and the Lost Boys today… or Rogers getting hurt protecting you, is it?"

When he looked down again upon his sleeping daughter, he at last let out a reluctant sigh and then he replied, "I suppose that's all a part of it. But I fear there's more to what's troubling me than just that. This morning… while Rogers and I were talking, he said that he believed his nightmares were more than just mere nightmares. He was afraid they were warning him of something terrible about to happen. And now… I can't seem to shake the feeling he's right. I've had nightmares like his before, and I was usually right. Except of course for when I used to dream I was still trapped within the Underworld. Something's coming, Emma. And it isn't Black Beard, or the Lost Boys. We've no idea what it is."

"If it's true, and something bad does come, we will fight against it together like we've always done," the Savior sadly responded to him again, then she raised her hand to the side of his face so she could lovingly caress his cheek. "Whatever this danger that might be coming is, it won't be any worse than we've dealt with before. I mean… I survived the final battle against the Black Fairy and Gideon, you came back to life after you sacrificed yourself to save us all and suffered agonizing torture in the Underworld at Hades' hands, and we both survived being the Dark Ones for a time because of our love for one another. And if we can survive all that… then whatever's coming now will be just another battle against a villain we will defeat together. We are going to be alright."

"Aye, love," the Captain answered her in understanding, though Emma could still sense her husband's uneasiness, especially when he stood up and carefully handed their daughter down to her mother. "I know you're right and that we can defeat whatever comes. It's just… someone is always hurt when a new villain arrives unexpectedly to make trouble for us. Rogers and I were lucky today, but what if something were to happen to his daughter like he fears? What if this new evil… is coming for her? Rogers will never be able to forgive himself. Believe me, I know how he feels. Just as you do too. Forgive me, Swan… but I need to go out for a walk to try to clear my head. Try to go back to sleep and don't worry about me. I'll be fine come morning."

The man she loved leaned down to kiss her before he walked away and Emma then stood up herself with their daughter still within her arms, as she called out to Killian once he approached the door saying, "I love you, Killian."

Killian smiled back at her and then he whispered, "I love you too. Both of you. Much more than you'll ever know."

"I know," she lovingly replied again and watched him leave.

Emma looked down at Hope once more, then finally started to return to their daughter's room next to their own so she could lay her back down in her crib. However, she only made it to the bottom of the stairs, when she was suddenly bombarded by a vision that came in flashes like they always did, even though it's been months since she's had one. They had grown much less frequent since the final battle ended and was won, the last time being when she saw flashes of her husband getting into a fight against another man who looked just like him, only to discover that Hook from the Wish Realm had come seeking help to save his daughter and started out doing so the wrong way.

This time, Emma saw images of Rogers' daughter while Alice was walking as if in a trance somewhere she couldn't yet recognize, until the images changed to her firing her magic against something Emma could only suspect to be this new evil coming like both Rogers and Killian feared. And lastly, the Savior suddenly heard the young woman cry out for her father in fear, before her vision finally ended. When she came back from her vision's throes, she looked down at her still sleeping daughter with worry, before Emma walked back over to Hope's bassinette within their living room to lay her down, then she quickly pulled out her phone to call her son in the hope that he and Ella would be willing to look after Hope for her despite the early hour so she could try to find Alice and Rogers.

Much to her surprise, Henry was already awake and he sounded worried. So, once she hung up and lifted Hope back into her arms, Emma swiftly poofed herself from hers and Killian's home, then reappeared within her son's living room. She then became even more surprised when she found that not only were her son and daughter in law awake, but so were Lucy, Regina, Zelena, Robin, and Chad too, as they were all standing together talking.

"Hey… what's going on?" Emma asked them all in concern upon seeing the worry on her family's and friends' faces.

Robin responded before anyone else could as she said worryingly, "We're worried about Alice and her father. When I got home tonight, about a half an hour ago, Alice wasn't there. She should have been, but… I tried calling her and she isn't answering. Not any of my calls."

Regina then continued, "Rogers isn't answering his phone either. We suspect they might be in trouble. We were just on our way out to look for them."

"I hope you have a locator potion ready, because I just had a vision and they're definitely both in trouble," the Savior sternly answered them. "I don't know why, or who's threatening them… I only saw Alice walking in a trance like state, her using her magic against someone, and then I heard her cry out for her father. If Alice has been gone this long already, then God only knows how long we have before we're too late."

"I can take care of that," Zelena replied to them, then vanished within a green cloud of smoke to return home to whip up a potion as fast as she was able, while Ella came over to take Hope from Emma's arms, knowing that her mother in law had brought her in hope that she would look after her.

Ella then stated, "Lucy and I will watch over your daughter for you. Is Killian alright?"

The Savior nodded as she responded, "He's fine. He just went out for a walk is all. We're not the only ones who were having trouble sleeping tonight."

"Once Zelena gets back with the potions, I'll go find Rogers," Henry said out of concern for his closest friend aside from his stepfather. "Chad and Zelena can come with me."

"Then Emma, Robin, and I will look for Alice," Regina answered assuredly, as the Savior and the archer nodded in agreement, then the Good Queen summoned Rogers' hook to her hand so they would be able to use it to find him and handed it over to her son. "Here's Rogers' hook."

Robin then pulled out the pocket watch that ticked backwards in time which Alice had given her years ago, and she added, "And I've got this to help us find Alice. Whoever's threatening them…"

Emma interrupted her before she could finish while she replied, "We will stop them in time. We just have to fight for Alice and Rogers like we've always done for those we love. And we will. Killian promised Rogers this morning that nothing would ever happen to Alice again. I won't let that promise become broken."


	19. Chapter 19

United In a Second Chance

Chapter Nineteen

Years ago, within New Wonderland…

Upon leaving the witch frozen where she stood, Hook from the Wish Realm ran beyond the hills to the north to where Nessa had told him of, where he thankfully very quickly found her garden containing all kinds of flowers, plants, fruits, and vegetables which included her prided poisonous toadstools. He warily stepped within the garden, not because he was worried about upsetting the witch if he destroyed her crops, but he was cautious because he didn't know what else she might be growing within her garden. Then, upon coming upon the toadstools, the pirate knelt down and carefully cut one from its roots using his hook to do so.

Hook examined the mushroom closely and then used the pointed end of his hook to slice into it, allowing the very poison poisoning his heart to drain out, again being very careful not to allow the fluid to touch his skin despite it already affecting him as it was. He didn't know if anyone would be able to help him with a cure from the poison itself, but he did know that it wouldn't hurt to take one of the mushrooms back home to the Wish Realm with him where he could continue on with his search in hope to save himself from the toadstool's poison within his heart so he could finally become reunited with his daughter.

Unfortunately, though not unexpectedly, Nessathorn appeared within her garden before the invader now that the squid ink's affects had faded, just as Hook stood again while he carefully placed the toadstool within his satchel that he wore around his shoulders beneath his cloak. The Captain swiftly pulled off his cloak altogether, then pulled out his sword and kept it raised in front of him from the moment she appeared, yet neither of them attacked one another.

Instead, the witch glared at him, until at last she spoke one more saying, "Your squid ink didn't hold me for as long as you hoped, pirate. I could kill you quite easily. And believe me when I say, I do want to. The question is… should I, or should I instead keep you alive a little longer to make you suffer for entrapping me and then coming into my garden to steal from me?"

Hook kept his eyes steadily on her as well while he answered sternly, "You probably had every intention of coming here to kill me before, but if I recall… you gave me permission to enter your garden to take myself a mushroom so I might find someone to help me discover a cure for its poison. Go ahead and do your worst to me, witch. But I promise you, I won't just fall down and die so easily. I may be losing hope of ever freeing my daughter and living out the rest of my days all alone in misery and loathing, but I'm not defeated yet. So if you really want to fight me, fight me."

"Well… well… well… this is indeed a surprise, Captain," a cruel, unmistakable voice then sounded from behind him, as Hook immediately turned his head behind him to come face to face again with Gothel, once she and three of her other sisters stepped out from within the darkness of the trees blocking the moonlight shining down on them now, the last time seeing her having been the night she poisoned his heart and forced him apart from his daughter. "But I've already told you that death isn't in the cards for you just yet. I want you to suffer first. And the time passed is hardly satisfactory."

"What the devil are you doing here?" the pirate coldly asked her once he took a few steps away from her and the other witches, yet kept his eyes trained on the villainess he despised and feared most, then finally just lowered his cutlass before he returned it to its scabbard at his side upon seeing just how useless it now was to him. "Are you following me now too?"

Gothel sneered, then she responded, "Please… I hardly need to follow you, Hook. I always know where it is I can find you if I wanted to. Finding you here trying to find a way to cure your heart by stealing some of its poison is a pleasant surprise really."

She then turned her head to look upon Nessathorn as she added, "But the truth is, I've come here to confront an old friend of ours. One who has refused to join our coven, then saw to it to steal something of real value away from me."

"I had a feeling you'd be back one day to destroy me, Gothel," the witch formerly from Oz darkly replied to her. "The question is… why today? Or why tonight rather? You must be after something, or are perhaps putting another of your would be sisters through one of your wretched tests by asking them to kill me?"

"Actually, you're not far off," the tree nymph smugly answered her. "Our sister's test is taking place down in the village not too far from here. We've only come to make sure that you can't interfere. And I'm afraid it is time for you to pay for turning your back on us."

While the witches' focuses were on each other, Hook cautiously and silently pulled out the larger vial he carried on him containing what remained of the squid ink he had collected before coming to New Wonderland to confront this garden witch himself. However, he waited for the opportune moment to use it.

Nessa looked at Gothel and her sisters coldly, then at last summoned fireballs within the palms of her hands in order to defend herself against them as she shouted, "Go ahead then! I've lived longer than I thought I ever would after I was banished from my home by another one of you. But like the pirate here said, I won't just die so easily."

Gothel smiled as she looked between her and Hook again, then without looking to the rest of her coven, she stated haughtily, "Sisters… Nessarose's life is forfeit. End her."

Without hesitation, Hook immediately dove out from between the line of fire when the witches all summoned their powers to attack, and kept himself low to the ground in order to avoid becoming another target while the witches all kept their eyes on one another and not so much on him. His every instinct was to run. And yet, he knew that he couldn't just yet.

The pirate at last pulled out the vial's stopper with his teeth, then swiftly splashed just enough against the two witches whose backs were to him in order to freeze them both. Sage and Hilda. And upon seeing her sisters become frozen, Seraphina turned around to attack him in anger. However, Gothel stepped in and began to use her magic to choke him, lifting Hook off the ground as she demanded that Seraphina finish the job. The witches' leader then looked darkly into his eyes once she finally released him again and dropped him back down against the ground while Hook glared up into her own as well.

"Like I said, Hook… I'm not willing to put you out of your misery just yet, but I will not allow you to get away with hurting any of my sisters either," the villainess cruelly said to him as she slowly approached him despite the fight between Seraphina and Nessa still going on behind her, while Hook struggled to rise again to his feet. "So what shall your punishment be? Perhaps I ought to make you my slave for awhile. Not for the rest of your life of course. I have other plans in mind. But long enough to make you loathe yourself that much more."

"I won't be yours, or anyone else's slave ever again, witch," Hook retorted, then swiftly fired his pistol he had kept hidden beneath his body as he gently cocked back its hammer, until he stood again and aimed it directly at the last witch left unfrozen aside from Mother Gothel herself, as the musket ball suddenly struck Seraphina in her chest.

The tree nymph screamed for her sister she'd come to love dearly over the number of centuries they've been together for upon seeing her fall and heard her cry out in pain upon being shot, then immediately turned and ran to her so she could help her sister before she died, as Gothel pulled Seraphina into her arms to hold her.

She then glared back up at the pirate Captain again when Hook spoke darkly saying, "I know a mere bullet wouldn't have affected you as it would her, seeing as you are immortal and you would have been able to keep it from striking you. But you didn't expect me to shoot your sister witch there. The choice is yours, Gothel… come after me to make me pay for my crimes against you and your coven, or save her life."

"One day, you will pay dearly for this, Captain," Mother Gothel angrily responded to him as she gently began to heal Seraphina's wound in hope of saving her from death. "I promise you."

"I helped save your life tonight, so you owe it to me to help me try to save the villagers from whatever's about to happen to them," Hook then demanded from Nessathorn once he started to leave. "I'm guessing you must still feel something for them, otherwise you have killed them all yourself long ago. Instead, you still protect them despite your greed. Help me stop the other witches. I may be a pirate, but I am no longer heartless."

Nessa glared back at him while she replied coldly, "I owe you nothing, pirate. But… it would be a shame to lose the life I've made for myself here. Are you ready?"

Hook simply nodded, and without further hesitation, she poofed him and herself from her garden and down to the village where he hoped they would be in time to save as many of the people who lived there as they could, before Morgause could slaughter them all to try to prove herself to Mother Gothel and the rest of the coven she longed to be a part of.

Gothel ignored her instincts and yearning to kill Hook and the witch who denied her place among those of her coven, as she continued to heal Seraphina's wound and at last it closed once the villainess pulled the musket ball out from within her chest, but when the younger woman attempted to ask her what happened, the witch who saw herself as a mother to all immediately whispered, "Shush… you needn't worry about all that now. I promise you, I will deal with those who have done this to you, sister. But for now… just go home and wait for my return. It's time that I see how Morgause is fairing."


	20. Chapter 20

United In a Second Chance

Chapter Twenty

In Storybrooke…

Just minutes before Robin returned home, Alice was suddenly awakened and pulled deeply under a dark trance by a strange voice whispering to her, words she nor anyone else could hardly understand aside from it speaking her name. Yet the whispers called out to her and bade her to follow them, as the poor girl left the safety of her cabin in the woods while she began to walk, until at last she came upon Gothel's tree inside the Community Gardens. Once she did, the voice stopped and Alice awoke from her trance feeling confused by how she had gotten there.

She immediately looked all around her for signs of danger and at first the girl from the tower saw nothing or no one. At least, not until Morgause stepped out from the shadows and into the moonlight now shining down on them both. Alice swiftly took a few steps back upon sensing she was dangerous, but she turned to face the witch head on without fear.

"Who are you?" Alice then firmly asked her at last. "And what am I doing here? I take it this was your doing?"

"You needn't be afraid of me, young one," the villainess coolly replied to her, before she finally pulled off her hood to reveal herself to Alice like she had done for Rogers as well. "I only wish to talk with you for a moment. That's why I brought you out here. I just needed a place where we will hopefully not become disturbed. My name is Morgause."

Alice glared at her as she questioned, "So you hypnotized me? Or something like that. I don't really care what you want to talk to me for. If you're going to ask me to trust you, or… to help you, you can forget it. You're a witch. My father's suddenly begun to have nightmares again. Strange nightmares that he doesn't seem to understand and I'm guessing you're the one causing them. Why? What the hell do you want?"

Morgause smiled as she walked around Alice until she stopped beside the tree nymph eternally trapped within her own prison, and then she answered, "I'm a sorceress actually. And yes… I was the one who caused your father's nightmares. They were only part of his punishment for all that he's done to me. These scars on the right side of my face… he burned me. Struck my face with a lit torch. And he helped you to defeat your mother."

"You were a friend of Gothel's?" Alice uttered in disbelief. "You must not have been one of the witches invited into her coven then. Because all of them have been defeated as well because of their own foolishness for believing in Gothel's promises. You weren't there among them. And just so you know, Gothel was no mother to me. Not after everything she's done to me and my father. She'll never be my mother."

"Which is why you and your father will pay for what's come of her," the sorceress cruelly responded to her, then waved her hand at her side as Rogers suddenly appeared beside Morgause, gagged with his wrists bound in front of him and Alice immediately cried out to him in fear while he struggled against his bindings to free himself. "Beginning with your father. Your magic, Alice… is weak. It might not have been when you used it to turn Gothel into this tree here, but because you believed you lost it until today and have failed to harness your magic to make yourself stronger, it's weakened and without complete control."

The girl from the tower looked at her father with fear, until she glared at Morgause again in rage while she spoke to her darkly saying, "You think my powers are weak and that I can't protect him from the likes of you? You're wrong. I won't let you take my father from me like Gothel did. I won't ever let anyone harm him again. I'll stop you… just like I did her."

The villainess then pulled a dagger from her belt and raised it in front of Rogers to strike him down. However, before she could, Alice shouted out for her to stop and screamed out as she suddenly unleashed her own power against the sorceress just like she had done with Gothel to try to save her father.

Unfortunately, what Alice didn't know was that her father being in danger as he continued to stand before her while he watched on once she she lashed out against the evil sorceress, was nothing more than an illusion forced into her mind by Morgause, as was the witch she believed was a danger to him. The real Rogers was still trapped within the cage Morgause magically created for him to keep him away.

Morgause reappeared a safe distance away from Alice beside her and she watched on with hope that her plan to free Gothel using Alice's own fear of losing her father again against her to do so would work, trusting the girl would summon the same power within her she used to entrap her sister, and hoping she was powerful enough as she tweaked Alice's belief of what she was attempting to do just enough to get her to reverse her magic against the tree instead of forcing it upon Gothel further.

However, much to the sorceress' surprise, Emma, Regina, and Robin suddenly appeared within the gardens as well, as Robin immediately cried out to Alice to stop despite being unable to see what it was the girl was seeing. However, because of Emma's vision, they knew she was still caught up within her trance or delusion she had become trapped under.

Alice didn't hear the archer, so Robin attempted to go towards her until Regina held her back for her own protection, while the women all turned towards Morgause upon seeing her standing before them as well, and Emma called out to the villainess firmly, shouting, "What the hell are you doing?! Whatever you're trying to do…"

"Just stop this, or we'll stop you!" the Good Queen brusquely interrupted the Savior and then raised her hands as she prepared to attack the new threat to their kingdom.

"You'll try, but you'll only fail," the sorceress sinisterly said to them, then she suddenly unleashed her own powers against them with all the strength she had upon seeing it was the former Evil Queen and the Savior whom she was about to fight against, to keep them distracted long enough for Alice to finish.

Regina released her magic against the villainess, and Emma immediately pulled Robin down to her knees behind her to keep her shielded further from the witch's wrath, then pleaded with her to stay down while she stood again to help Regina, as she discharged her powers against Morgause as well for as long as each of them were able to hold one another back.

Before the heroes could stop Alice, despite Robin continuing to call out to her to stop while she tried to break through the witch's dark trance over her, the girl's rage and unharnessed power forced into Gothel's tree finally did exactly what Morgause wanted, as the tree nymph and all-powerful witch at last became free. The tree Mother Gothel had become weeks ago just after her curse was broken, slowly crumbled away from her true form, then she weakly collapsed to her knees, as did Alice while she stared at Gothel in shock upon seeing what she had just done.

Finally, she stuttered, "Wha… what's happen… What… What have I done? Papa, where are you? Papa?!"

Gothel looked at her daughter with her own rage she felt towards her for defeating her and with as much strength as she could muster despite feeling so weak, the darker villainess than even Morgause unleashed her power against Alice. However, both Gothel and Alice were shocked again, when Killian suddenly ran in front of her dark magic as he swiftly wrapped his arms protectively around his friend's daughter, then shoved her forward and roughly against the ground. Unfortunately, Gothel's magic struck him in his back as he saved her and Killian remained still, if not lifeless once his eyes fell closed.

Without getting a good enough look at him in the moment he had become hurt protecting her, Alice immediately screamed, "Papa, no!"

"Killian?" she then gasped in fear once she managed to get out from under him enough to really see him and to try to help him, and finally saw his hook a well as the clothes he was wearing so that she realized who really saved her. "No… no… no… Killian!"

Upon hearing the girl cry out her husband's name, Emma and Regina became distracted the moment their full attentions fell away from the villainess they were still fighting against, and Morgause swiftly blasted them both off their feet, casting the Queen and Savior back through the air until they crashed heavily against one of the stone walls surrounding the Community Gardens.

"Regina!" Robin cried out this time to her aunt upon being spared from the sorceress' wrath thanks to Emma asking her to remain the ground, but as soon as they fell against the ground upon striking the wall, she rushed over to them to make sure that they were alright.

Emma immediately struggled to get back up while Robin helped her first so she could run to her husband she saw suddenly become hurt by Gothel, while Morgause then ran over to help Gothel, wrapped her arms around her sister, and immediately vanished with her within a cloud of smoke.

Emma didn't care that the villainesses fled in the moment she reached Killian, as she carefully pulled him into her arms while Alice looked up at her with deep remorse and fear, then whispered, "I'm so… I'm so sorry."

At last, Regina and Robin finally ran over to them as well while the archer checked on her fiancée, then the Good Queen laid one hand over Emma's back as she whispered, "We'll take care of him, Emma. But back at my place where we'll all be safe. We can deal with those witches later."

Without further hesitation or argument from her friend, Regina poofed everyone back to her mansion where they could help Killian somewhere where they wouldn't be so exposed. Just as Morgause did the same for Gothel, as she poofed her sister back to her lair within the cave deep within the woods.

Tonight, the villains won when they overpowered the heroes who had fought them blindly, because they didn't know what or who they were up against during their battle despite the Savior's vision. All they knew was that Alice was in danger. Unfortunately, the only one seriously hurt upon keeping his word to Rogers that his daughter would be protected, was Killian.


	21. Chapter 21

United In a Second Chance

Chapter Twenty-One

Inside Morgause's lair…

Upon their return, Gothel stared at Morgause in confusion while the sorceress helped her by sitting her in her own chair, conjured up a blanket for her and wrapped it gently around her shoulders, then sat down on the ground of the cave in front of her, before she finally spoke softly saying, "Everything is going to be all right for you now. At last, you're free. I wish I could have freed you sooner… Or that I could have been with you before that young girl turned you into that blackened tree so I might have been able to save you then, but… How do you feel? Is there anything I can get for you?"

The tree nymph looked away from her as she looked around the open cavern and then she responded sternly, "I'll be better once my daughter is taken care of permanently so that she will no longer be a threat to me. I gave her a chance to take her rightful place at my side, but she refused because she has too much of her father in her. Who was that who saved her just now from my wrath? Alice called out to him by his name, and some pretty blonde cried out for him as well. It's clear he wasn't the bastard of a pirate who's thwarted my plans time and time again, yet he had Hook's face."

"He's another version of Hook, from this realm we're in now," Morgause quietly replied as she remained on the ground in front of her. "The original version of Captain Hook, before his Wish Realm was ever created it would seem. A lot has changed since you became trapped within that tree, sister. And you're no longer in Hyperion Heights, but in a land now known as the United Realms, or simply Storybrooke… as it was called before all realms were brought together in another curse. Please… rest and I promise, I will tell you everything."

"Why did you free me, after everything that happened between us the last time we saw one another all those years ago?" Mother Gothel then questioned the sorceress, as she finally looked down upon her. "Why risk your life and your own freedom for me?"

Before answering her, the sorceress's mind momentarily became lost while she thought back to the early morning so long ago in New Wonderland, when she failed to become the sixth member of the witch coven and was cast out as well as shunned for being unable to fulfill her test Gothel had tasked her with.

Fourteen years ago…

Meanwhile, on the hill just above the village, Morgause and Madame Leota stood while they looked down upon the huts below and listened to the breeze in the air through the silence which surrounded them, as the villagers had yet to awaken because the sun had yet to begin to rise.

The sorceress breathed in and out as she prepared herself for what lay ahead for her, then upon seeing the look of concern for the people she was tasked to kill, the medium at last said to her harshly, "Those people down there… they are nothing. They are strangers, who do not know who you are and will never care to. In one moment, if they were to discover you are a witch, they would not hesitate to kill you. Nor me. Anyone who is not one of us, does not deserve to go on breathing. Humanity is a sickness, which we have all been asked to eliminate. Do not think of them as innocents. Think of them as if they were those who murdered your son. Who forced you to run from your own home. Think of them, as those who forced you to hide who and what you truly are. If you can destroy them all, Morgause… you will not just become one of us. But you will finally and truly be free. Is that what you want?"

The younger woman not yet a member of Gothel's coven turned to her as she then answered in sincerity, "It's what I want more than anything. I'm not thinking about the guilt I might have when I kill everyone down there, Leota. Not anymore. I'm just thinking about finally having the chance to avenge my son and making those who ended his life pay at last. I need my anger to fuel my resolve if I am to succeed here. And now I've found it."

"Then it is time," Leota darkly responded again, as she smiled at the other woman standing beside her. "Dig deep down inside of yourself, and show us your true gift. Destroy them all."

"Thank you," Morgause replied to her, then she raised her hands out in front of her and suddenly ignited the unlit torches below to light up the village, before she slowly began to walk down the hill towards them while she began to cast a dark spell over all those still fast asleep.

As she did so, Madame Leota saw that this sorceress she had been asked to look after by her sister excelled in spreading deep rooted fear through a mastery of delusions and hallucinations. Morgause unleashed her raw magic against the people, conjuring images of what every one of them were most afraid of by making them believe that they themselves were each other's demons.

Soon enough, the people began to awaken as if from a nightmare and it wasn't long before their screams could be heard throughout the village, as those they went to sleep believing to be their sisters, mothers, sons, brothers, fathers, and loved ones, had become their worst fears and enemies. And then, they soon began to attack one another upon being unable to tell what was real and what wasn't. Death wasn't far behind.

Morgause smiled cruelly upon watching as man suddenly struck his neighbor in his head with a staff to knock him down to the ground, then began to beat him over and over until the man at his feet was dead. She couldn't see for herself what or who he believed he had just killed to keep himself from being killed, but she didn't have to in order to feel the satisfaction of watching them destroy themselves because of her power.

Others began to die, as wails of grief and shrieks of anger and fear sounded all around the sorceress while she continued to emit her dark magic. Eventually, the village caught fire and the homes started to burn to ground, while more deaths followed. Everything was perfect… until Hook and Nessathorn suddenly interfered as they appeared before her, and the witch formerly from Oz swiftly blasted Morgause off her feet to try to break off her enchantment she had cast over the village.

Once they saw what was happening around them, Hook swiftly struck one of the men closest to him attempting to kill a young woman, upside his head with his hook to render him unconscious, then he turned back to the witch he hoped truly was currently on his side and pleaded, "We have to save as many people as we can. Help me get them out of here."

Upon seeing Nessathorn and the pirate appear as well, Leota walked down into the village to join her sister and she swiftly commanded, "Kill the pirate. Leave the witch to me."

"You're too late to stop what I've already unleashed, pirate," the sorceress darkly called out to Hook as she approached him, while he helped another young woman who had been freed from the spell upon it being weakened by lifting her from the ground, then demanded her to run from the village, and swiftly knocked one of the huts down atop of another villager who attempted to attack him by breaking away two of its support beams away with his sword. "How dare you try to stop me!"

"Stopping you wasn't initially what I came here for tonight, but these villagers have helped me when I needed them," he coldly answered her, then raised his sword out in front of him to defend himself against her for as long as he could. "And if you're one of Gothel's sisters… well, then I have no qualms in killing you. Just as you clearly have no qualms with killing all these innocent people. Fancy a duel? Your magic's become weak, witch. So long as you're focused on me, you can't continue to force your fear upon them."

Not far away from where they stood, Nessarose used her magic to snuff out the fires the best she could, as well as to try to break the trances over a number of the people until she was interrupted when Madame Leota appeared behind her and struck her down with blasts of electricity from her fingertips. However, before the medium could attack her again, the witch who refused to become a member of the coven fought back to defend herself by firing her own magic against hers.

Morgause then glared at Hook while she responded to him, "My name is Morgause and I'm a powerful sorceress. What makes you think you can keep me from killing you… a mere human without magic, when all you have is that sword and hook of yours to try to protect yourself with?"

The Captain kept his eyes firmly on her as he steadfastly replied, "You'd be surprised by the battles I've survived and the villains I've faced in all my years. You may not have magic, but I do have a few tricks of my own."

The sorceress summoned a fireball into the palms of her hands and attempted to strike him down, yet Hook dodged the first blast, then dove beneath her second one as he flipped over until he landed just behind the witch. She then spun around to face him again. However, before she could grasp what he was about to do, the pirate swiftly thrust his sword's blade into the flames from a wagon of furs close by him and it immediately caught fire, then he swung it around towards the villainess standing before him as the burning blade slashed her across her cheek, causing the fire to spread across the right side of her face while she screamed out in pain until she managed to snuff out the flames.

"I swear… I will kill you!" she then screamed at him in anger, and swiftly conjured a burst of magic to force the pirate off his feet high through the air until he landed roughly against the ground again not far from where the other two witches continued to fight as well. "You may have saved some of these people, but the night isn't over yet. And I'm not finished."

"You're right," he weakly answered her as he struggled to sit up again, before he finally saw Mr. Smee standing not too far away behind the witch, while he showed him the magic bean he brought for him in his hand.

Hook glanced away from his former first mate, now Captain of the Jolly Roger, as he glared up at Morgause once more and then he added, "But you haven't exactly completed your test like I imagined Gothel wanted you to… did you? Not if even one innocent person survives."

Morgause at last summoned another blast with enough dark magic to kill the man before her. However, the moment she threw it, Hook shocked her once again when he suddenly lunged forward and dove beneath her again, just as her magic struck Madame Leota by mistake. And when the medium erupted into flames as both women screamed, one in pain and the other in anger, it took no more than a few seconds before she abruptly burst into nothing but ash. Then without hesitation, Hook swiftly jumped into the portal which opened up behind her after Smee tossed the bean into the ground to help his Captain avoid her attack and to escape, knowing he had done all he could for the people.

The sorceress continued to scream in anger and despair upon seeing she killed one of her sisters she had come to care about, as she and Nessathorn stared down at the ground between them in shock. And then all of a sudden, large roots burst up through the ground as they began to wrap themselves around the former Witch of the North, until they killed her and dropped her coldly to the ground.

Morgause stared down at the other witch in confusion, until Gothel at last walked out from the shadows into the light from the fires surrounding them, while the surviving villagers continued to flee all around them. And when the younger woman saw the nymph appear before her, she collapsed to her knees and bowed at her feet in an attempt to plead for forgiveness.

Mother Gothel just glared down at her while she stated furiously, "You failed me. And you killed Leota… one of my dearest sisters. You couldn't… even kill the man who tried to stop you! Instead… you allowed Hook to escape! You deserve to suffer in your misery and with the pain of these burns for the rest of your life."

"Please… I can hunt him down, and I will kill him," the sorceress begged with her, in hope that she would give her a second chance at redemption. "And I can still complete my task. I will kill everyone here. I can become one of you still."

"You will never be one of us," the dark villainess cruelly responded, as the other three witches within her coven stepped up behind their leader and glared down upon Morgause as well. "I do not give second chances. Return home to your Camelot, or stay here and remain as pitiful as you truly are. I don't care. I never want to see your face again. If I do… my face will be the last sight you ever see."

And with that said, Mother Gothel, Seraphina, Sage, and Hilda all suddenly vanished within clouds of smoke taking their sister's ash with them, leaving Morgause alone in misery and anguish among the flames and all that was left standing of the village now in ruins, while the last of the villagers fled.

Back in the present…

At last, Morgause looked up at Gothel from the ground again as she finally replied, "I saved you despite everything because… because you helped me when no one else did all those years ago. I was all alone and you took me in. You helped me to enhance my power, even though it took me a few years longer to claw my way back from the misery of my failure so I could become who I was meant to be. I never stopped seeing you as my sister. And now we have both failed. But now that I have finally freed you, we can kill these heroes and destroy this world together. We can make Hook and his daughter pay for what they've done to us. Please tell me, I have earned your forgiveness. That is all I've ever wanted."

The tree nymph looked away from her once more while she thought a moment, then she answered sinisterly, "Help me to kill the girl who has the power still to entrap me, as well as her father, Morgause… and perhaps you and I can begin again. It would seem I've no choice, since I did fail. Because I underestimated the love Alice and Hook share for one another. Now… tell me everything that's happened since my daughter turned me into that damned tree."


	22. Chapter 22

United In a Second Chance

Chapter Twenty-Two

Meanwhile, inside Rogers' home…

Rogers continued to fight against his prison to break free despite the pain the cage discharged every time he attempted to strike out against it. His daughter was in danger and her life was all he cared about in that moment. Unfortunately, his phone was currently sitting on the top of his nightstand beside his bed, so he couldn't even make a call for help, and he had every reason to suspect everyone else in Storybrooke were all fast asleep, which meant no one would be coming to find them just as Morgause taunted him.

At last, futile attempt after attempt to escape until he finally discovered doing so had caused him to bleed out from numerous lacerations in his arms, hand, chest, and most likely his back as well from striking against the cage's bars, the former detective collapsed to the floor in pain and in exhaustion from wearing himself out, as his guilt he felt from having failed his daughter for most of her life began to rise again to the surface. His guilt was always still with him, but since he had shown Alice how much he loved her once he began to fight for her after he found his courage again to do so thanks to Killian and Emma back when fate brought them together, after he and Alice started growing close as Rogers and Tilly during the curse, as he helped her to defeat Gothel when he appeared to take her hand in his own despite the poison within his heart, and everything since thanks to his heart being cured, Rogers believed that his guilt had finally begun to lessen a little more every day. Yet in that moment, he saw just how wrong he was.

Rogers stared down at the floor in front of him in misery while he wrapped his good hand over one of the larger bleeding gashes within his left arm, and he allowed the tears in his eyes to fall freely. Gothel was about to become free once more and Alice was in danger… and he was failing to protect her all over again.

"All that happens to Alice in life and protection from the dangers of this world does not rest solely on your shoulders, detective," a gentle, familiar voice suddenly spoke to him, and Rogers then stared up at the man now standing before him in shock, as well as confusion upon seeing his partner and closest friend just beyond his reach outside of his prison. "Hello, Rogers. I bet you're wondering how it is I'm here?"

"I… I fear I've begun to go mad because of my grief," the pirate from the Wish Realm apprehensively answered while he continued to stare at Weaver's ghost uneasily. "You can't possibly be here. You gave your life…"

Weaver finished for him, "…so you would live. So that Alice would finally be able to be with her father again, just as you both deserved. I may have passed on from this world, but you have my heart. Which means… you and I are still connected thanks to the friendship we forged despite who we were, both before the curse and during it. And should you ever need my guidance, I'm here. That is why I'm here now. I promise you… you are not going mad. But this guilt you continue to carry will eventually destroy you, if you can't find a way to let it go by trusting Alice can protect herself, or that others will do so when neither you nor she can't. Your daughter doesn't wish for you to keep blaming yourself. Nor do I. I had hoped my heart might help relieve some of your pain and yet clearly I was wrong about that."

The former younger detective shook his head once he swiftly wiped away most of the tears from his eyes and then stated, "You're not… wrong. Day by day, little by little, my guilt was fading. Or so I believed. But right now, Alice is in great danger and all of my guilt immediately returned. I'm not sure how exactly, but a witch has threatened her and wishes to use her to free Gothel from her prison. That's why I'm trapped here in my own. So she would be able to taunt me and to keep me from saving her. And I… I'm the only one who knows. What if Alice can't protect herself? I can't lose her, Weave… Gold. I can't."

"Believe me… I understand," Gold remorsefully replied to him, then he slowly knelt down in front of him so that their eyes were finally eye level. "You and I now share a heart… So what you feel, now I feel also. Even from beyond this world. And tonight, I felt your pain and your fear of losing Alice once again. I wanted to come the moment I felt you needed strength to have hope your daughter will be alright, but… Belle encouraged me to take the next step. I told her everything you and I have been through since we met all those years ago, and she's very grateful to you for being my truest friend despite our differences."

"So… you've gotten back to her then?" Rogers then softly responded with a small sense of relief… that his partner hadn't given up his heart to save him for nothing. "Everything you did in service to finding your way back to her, allowed you to do so? I mean… you're both truly happy and together at last, without the darkness staining your soul?"

The former Dark One smiled at him and answered simply, "Yes. You needn't fear any longer that I sacrificed my heart for nothing, Rogers. I sacrificed it for everything. And it was the best decision I have ever made, and would happily make it again. Not just because it allowed me to find my way back to my wife, but because not only was I able to save the life of a man whom I admire and care for a great deal… it also brought a father and daughter back together again. It helped you and Alice to gain your own happy endings as well. You just have to hold onto it with every ounce of strength and courage you possess. Have hope, Rogers. I learned long ago never to underestimate the rest of the heroes who live around you here in Storybrooke. You'll come to find they are full of surprises."

And then, all of a sudden, a loud knock sounded at the door as Henry worryingly called out to him from the outside. Gold finally stood again and smiled down upon his friend while Rogers also struggled to stand despite his injuries. And just as Henry came running into his room to find him, followed closely by Chad and Zelena once she used her magic to break open the door so they could enter, the senior detective's ghost at last vanished from before him as though he were never there. Yet Rogers knew otherwise.

Then, upon seeing his friend trapped inside a cage within the center of his room, Henry swiftly rushed towards Rogers as he cried out, "Rogers! Are you… Who did this to you?"

"Don't touch it!" the sheriff swiftly shouted out at him as soon as the younger man approached him and was about to do so to try to break him out of it. "You'll only hurt yourself if you do."

"Like you've done apparently," Zelena flippantly replied once she and Chad also walked towards him, and began to study her friend as well as the cage imprisoning him. "No wonder you weren't answering your phone. What the hell's happened to you?"

Rogers looked between them while he responded worryingly, "A witch… Or a sorceress rather. And a very powerful one. Morgause. But right now, it doesn't matter what she's done to me. She's after Alice. She wants to use her to free Gothel. I don't know how, but… You have to find her. You have to save her… please! Before Alice is harmed or unwittingly frees that witch."

Henry looked at his friend assuredly as he answered him, "Don't worry… both my moms and Robin are looking for Alice right now. Emma had a vision of Alice being in danger. And when you didn't answer your phone, we split up because we were worried you were in trouble too. Which… you are."

"My injuries are nothing right now," the former detective gruffly said once again. "I'm fine. Alice is what matters. Besides, she's the only one who can free me from this cage, so there's no time to worry about me."

"What do you mean… your daughter's the only one who can free you?" Zelena's fiancé asked him in confusion. "I mean… I've never seen bars that look like they've been soaked in blood before, but…"

Rogers lowered his head in frustration as he replied, "Morgause has sealed this prison with blood magic. With my blood. And since Alice is the only one with my blood…"

Zelena finished for him, "Then she's the only one who can free you too. And yet Alice is currently busy being trapped under her trance Emma saw her in at the moment. Try not to worry about her. She'll be fine. And once the others find her, we'll be able to get you out of here too."

"I can't help but worry," the pirate now sheriff worryingly responded, then carefully he sat back down on the floor upon feeling weakened from the pain and blood loss caused by his injuries. "I've spent all the years of my daughter's life worrying about her."

"However, Weaver said to have hope and to try not to underestimate our friends," Rogers then continued in a voice barely above a whisper, while the others listened to him. "You're here now. So it appears, he might have been right."


	23. Chapter 23

United In a Second Chance

Chapter Twenty-Three

Inside Regina's home…

Once they reappeared, Emma discovered her friend had poofed them all into Henry's old bedroom, where she was now sitting on her son's bed with Killian still unconscious within her arms. Regina, Alice, and Robin stood around them, until the Good Queen urged the two young women to leave the room, then helped Emma lay her husband more firmly on the bed, while the Savior pulled herself away from him just enough so she wasn't smothering him, so that they could try to figure out what Gothel's magic had done to him.

Before Alice left the room, she looked between the man who looked like her father and his wife sadly as she whispered again, "I'm so sorry, Emma. I didn't mean… I never wanted anyone to ever become hurt because of me. And Killian… He came from out of nowhere. Why would he risk his life for me?"

At last, Emma looked away from him and raised her eyes to look up at the girl as she softly replied to her, "This isn't your fault, Alice. It isn't. Killian knew that protecting you was the right thing to do. He made a promise to your father that nothing bad would happen to you again. And he kept his word. Don't worry… he's going to be alright. He's a survivor. Always has been. Now go on… you need to find your father. He'll be happy to know you're okay. And I'm sure he's alright too, but we couldn't find him before all this happened. Henry, Zelena, and Chad went to look for him. Just give one of them a call."

"Thank you," Alice sincerely responded to her and then left the room to rejoin Robin before she did as Emma suggested.

"Regina… please tell me you know what kind of magic that nymph might have fired against my husband was?" the Savior then questioned the Good Queen again once the girls were gone and they were left alone to take care of Killian. "You fought against her. You know her tricks. What kind of magic does she possess?"

Together, both woman raised their hands over Killian's body and emitted their own power within him in hope of being able to tell what might be wrong with him, as Regina shook her head in frustration while she answered, "Honestly, I didn't ever fight her all that much. It wasn't until just after the curse over us was broken that I did, and I failed miserably. Had Henry not believed in himself again, or shown up when he did to give true love's kiss so he could break the curse, I'd be dead. And we'd both be dead had Alice not shown up to defeat her once and for all. Gothel is powerful in all kinds of dark magic, but she excels in phytokinesis… the ability to manipulate plants. Which I doubt is the power she emitted to hurt Hook just now. And unfortunately, it appears it wasn't just a bit of dark magic used to render him unconscious either."

Upon sensing something more as well, Emma uttered worryingly, "I can sense something more too."

"Lay him on his stomach a moment," the former Evil Queen sternly replied again, as she and Emma carefully rolled him over, then gently began to pull away his leather duster and shirt so that his back was bare, which was when they finally saw the reason why he hadn't awakened yet, high on his back, just below his neck between his shoulder blades.

"Regina… what the hell is this?" the Savior fearfully asked her once more, as she stared down coldly at the dark, ugly discoloration and sickly yellow striations surrounding a bleeding wound where he had been struck, until she raised her hands over it so she could try to heal him only to no avail. "Why? Why can't I heal him? What the hell has that witch done to him?"

Regina leaned down to examine the wound and its affects surrounding it more closely until she pulled back again, then responded in concern, "She wanted to kill Alice… most likely so that she wouldn't ever be able to imprison or defeat her ever again. Alice is the only one who can. And I'm betting… that Mother Gothel's the only one who can save Hook now."

Emma looked up at her friend once again while she then answered her forcefully, "If that's true, then we'll have to give her a reason to save him. I don't care how we do it, but I'm not going to lose Killian again, Regina. Hope isn't going to lose her father. We can't."

"We'll figure something out, Emma," the Good Queen assuredly replied to her. "Gothel won't get away with hurting anyone ever again."

Meanwhile…

Back inside Rogers' home, Zelena continued to discharge her magic against the cage bars holding her friend trapped within them prisoner, to try to break him free despite knowing her attempts were futile. However, she groaned in frustration once she finally gave up trying and raised her hands in frustration, until she simply dropped them at her sides.

"Try calling them again," the former Wicked Witch of the West crossly uttered as she turned to look over at her nephew who stood nearby with his phone in his hand, then once again he tried calling both of his moms, as well as Alice and Robin too. "Surely everyone's okay. I'd know it if something happened to Regina. Just as you… Rogers, would know it if something ever happened to your daughter."

"I thought so, but then before I saw Alice again the day she came to me once she had escaped the tower, Regina told me that it had been destroyed and I feared Alice might have been killed in that moment," Rogers anxiously responded to her. "Thankfully, it turned out she was fine. But when she fell under Gothel's spell down in the caves the night the curse was broken and even now… I fear she may be hurt, but I don't know. And that not knowing…"

Chad finished for him, "… is terrifying. I can only imagine."

All of a sudden, Henry spoke into his phone once someone on the other end of the line picked up, then he attempted to talk between their own words stating, "Alice? Thank goodness you're okay. Your father… He what? Is he okay? Look… you need to get here to your father's right away. Hurry."

"What's happened, Henry?" Rogers then asked him worryingly upon seeing the concern that fell over his face when his daughter tried to talk between Henry's words. "Is Alice alright?"

"She's fine," the younger man assuredly answered him. "She sounded scared. But… she wasn't the one who was hurt. Killian… he protected her."

The former detective looked down in worry upon realizing that his friend might have been seriously hurt in keeping his word to him about making sure Alice would remain safe, then he spoke sadly saying, "I never wanted him to risk his own life to protect her. Of course, I'm grateful, but… If he's hurt…"

Before he could go on, Alice then suddenly appeared within a purple cloud of smoke along with Regina, who used her magic to transport them there and upon seeing her father imprisoned, she rushed towards him while she cried out, "Papa! What's happened? Who did this to you?"

"It's all right for now, Starfish… I'm fine," he quietly replied to her, feeling a deep pang of guilt over what he didn't know yet happened to Killian. "Just don't… don't touch the bars. I need you to use you magic to break me out of here. You're the only one who can. I know you can do it."

"Okay," she responded, though she hardly believed in herself as much as her father did.

Alice raised her hands out in front of her and closed her eyes to concentrate, then at last emitted her power against the cage Rogers was trapped inside in order to try to make them vanish, or to bring them down. At first, her efforts didn't appear to be working, until nearly two minutes passed before the bars burst apart and bent outward wide enough for her father to slip out of the hole through once she finally cut off her magic. And as soon as he was free, his daughter immediately rushed into his arms and held him despite his own injuries upon feeling relieved that she succeeded in freeing him.

Rogers held her as well, until he suddenly stumbled back a little when he finally pulled away from her, then Regina unleashed her own magic to heal him, after which he looked over at her and whispered sincerely, "Thank you, Regina. And Killian… is he alright?"

She looked at him with remorse, then she answered, "That's a bit more complicated. But we'll explain everything in a moment. We should get back to him and Emma."

With that said, Regina once again poofed herself along with Rogers, Henry, and Alice from his home so they could return to hers, while Zelena used her magic to follow after them along with her fiancé. Then, once they appeared downstairs within the living room of the Good Queen's mansion where Robin was waiting for them to return as well, Regina carefully began to explain to everyone else around them what happened before she returned to Emma again to continue to help her save Killian. A task she feared wasn't going to be easy unless they could get Gothel to reverse her own magic she cast against their friend.


	24. Chapter 24

United In a Second Chance

Chapter Twenty-Four

Once Regina finished sharing with the others who hadn't been there for the witches' attack what happened, Rogers collapsed on the couch in shock as well as despair upon learning that Gothel was once again free like he feared she would become since he started having the nightmares Morgause had forced upon him, and just how badly Killian had been hurt protecting his daughter for him because he couldn't. Alice then sat down beside him and took his hand into hers to offer her father comfort, as he turned his head to smile at her in gratitude. However, he stood again and without a word to anyone, he apprehensively walked upstairs, then made his way towards the room where Emma was still looking after her husband so he could ask the Savior if there was anything he could do.

Yet when he appeared in the doorway and looked upon his friends as he saw the ugly wound left behind on Killian's back by Gothel's magic, while Emma was tending to her husband's wound and gently washing his upper body down to help keep down the rising fever growing within him, Rogers froze until he worryingly started to walk away. However, the Savior saw him and softly called out to him to stay before he could.

"Please… don't go," she pleaded with him as she quickly wiped away the tears in her eyes the best she could with the back of one of her hands, so Rogers turned back around and then stepped further inside the room while he stared down at his other self with concern, but he didn't sit down. "This isn't your fault, Rogers. And it isn't Alice's fault either. I hope you both understand that. That witch who hurt him, and the other one who forced your daughter to release this… Mother Gothel, are the only ones to blame."

"I do understand that," he whispered to her in return as he looked down at the floor in front of him to avoid her eyes. "Though… the understanding doesn't make seeing him hurt and you afraid for him any easier. I'm so sorry, Emma. When Killian swore to me this morning that Alice would be protected, I… I believed him and I was more grateful to him for his encouragement than he, or you will ever know. But I never expected him to risk his own life like this. I never wanted him to get hurt trying to protect us. He has his own family to look after. His own daughter who needs her father. I never wanted to be the reason for a father being taken from his child. I couldn't ever get between a father and his child. Just like I told Killian when we first met. That's why I couldn't go through with my plan to take your husband's place. I'm ashamed for even considering it."

Emma pulled him down onto the end of the bed, then laid one of her hands over his as she responded softly, "Killian protected your daughter, because it was the right thing to do. It's like any one of us would have done had we been given the chance. And yes… he feels a deeper connection to you and to Alice because you're a part of him just as he's a part of you, and because you're both one in the same. But he would risk his life for every one of us here. And he has. Killian literally went to Hell for all of us when he sacrificed his life to save us and to try to rid the world of the darkness. And a good majority of us all went down into the Underworld to bring him back. We fight for one another here whenever there's danger threatening us, with every ounce of strength and courage we possess because we're all family and because it is what's right."

Rogers smiled at her sadly and then looked down on his other self again while he answered, "You're right. And I'll help you save him, Emma. I promise. I'm just not sure how to yet. Gothel is powerful and were it not for Alice finding her own strength…"

He then cut himself off upon feeling his phone vibrate within his pocket and when he pulled it out to see who was calling him, he stared at the screen coldly upon recognizing the only number no longer in his contacts, which didn't have a name to go with it. The number he once held onto until he learned Eloise Gardener was the leader of a witch coven. Rogers motioned to Emma he would be back as he stood again, then stepped out of the room and walked down the hallway so he could talk somewhere more private.

"So… instead of coming here to try to finish the job, you're calling me like you used to do as if we were still cursed living within Hyperion Heights," Rogers said to her coldly after he finally answered her call. "A lot's different now, Gothel. As I'm sure Morgause has told you."

"She has," the villainess replied to him in her usual sinister tone through the other end of the line. "As I have now seen for myself. Including those protecting you aside from Regina and… Well, I heard that the Dark One is no longer with us. Sadly, he died giving you his heart so that you and my daughter could finally be together again. How very noble of him. And very foolish to waste it on someone such as yourself. It's a pity I can no longer use the poison in your heart to keep you from your daughter, but who is to say I can't hurt you and her again? I did so once and now… thanks to you failing to protect your daughter again, a close friend of yours is the one suffering at my hand. Your other self from this strange new world. And he has a wife and daughter of his own. What a shame. Is he…"

All of a sudden, the former detective cut her off at last as he responded crossly, "Is this why you called me? To taunt me? You're not gonna get under my skin this time, Gothel. I'm not the same man you knew before the curse or during it. What do you want in exchange for Killian's life? That's the real reason why you're calling… isn't it?"

From within Morgause's lair, Mother Gothel smiled haughtily while she stated, "Of course. As you must suspect, Alice's life isn't a part of our little negotiation, detective. Or rather… sheriff now. My daughter's life is over, one way or another. I gave her every chance to live, under my charge and teachings. Yet she refused. Except to protect you. Convincing her to give her life for yours again won't be hard. But I want to see you dead as much as her. So… I'm offering you a deal. I will save Killian's life if you agree to turn yourself over to me. I already have a potion prepared, which will cure the poison now spreading rapidly through his body. And I don't want to see Regina, or Henry, or that pretty blonde who cried out for her poor husband tonight with you, unless one of them comes simply to collect the antidote. This poison is nothing like the poison that was once over your heart. I assure you… it's much, much worse and it works far more quickly. Tell me, Captain… why would you want to live in a world, where those you care about most are dead and the rest blame you for what's come of them? What more will you have to live for?"

"You're right," Rogers darkly answered her. "About all of it. But I'll need to see for myself that the antidote you have will save my other self. I think you know me well enough to know that I would never just take you at your word. You will save him first. And then I'll give myself over to you. His wife will only be there with Killian to help him. What do you say we meet in an hour within the tower where you and I first met all those years ago? Or are you afraid of becoming imprisoned once again? You know that the potion you created to attempt to imprison Rapunzel until she trapped you first, and the one used to imprison my daughter is only of your design and therefore we can't replicate it."

"If you betray me, or you attempt to imprison me in any way, Hook… I promise you will regret it," she angrily replied, then abruptly hung up on him.

Once she did so, Rogers put his phone back in his pocket, then turned around to return to the room to talk with Emma again, until Regina suddenly appeared in front of him after she had overheard most of his end of the conversation he just had with Gothel, and she glared at him as she spoke angrily saying, "If you think I'm going to let you just give your life over to that witch even if it is to try to save Hook's, or even your daughter's life, you can forget it. How could you be foolish enough to think she would ever agree to save him, or to spare Alice?"

The former pirate Captain looked at her sternly until he responded, "I don't plan on simply giving myself over to her so she can use me however she'd like to, ever again. I don't trust her, Regina. Not a chance in hell would I ever trust her again. But for now, convincing her to meet with me in a familiar place was the only option I had to buy myself time to come up with a better solution. I just hope Killian's strong enough to keep fighting against the poison that's killing him. The enchantment which the fairies cast over Rumplestiltskin's cell in the mines… is it possible they can replicate it throughout the tower? Can we imprison Gothel again, as you all imprisoned the Dark One?"

"I suppose so, but it's going to take time and a little work," the Good Queen answered him in confusion as to what exactly the rest of his plan might be.

"Then please… ask whoever you need to, to get to it," he brusquely retorted again in frustration, then together they both entered Henry's old room once more, where Alice was now sitting on the end of the bed with Emma and Killian so she could help her.

Regina then continued with objection, "But you know then that if we do this, neither Emma nor I can help you without us becoming imprisoned in the tower ourselves, which means… you'll be completely on your own without magical backup."

Emma was about to object, until she suddenly heard her mother calling up to her from downstairs as she shouted, "Emma? Are you here?"

"It would seem that word of Gothel's and Morgause's attack has already begun to spread," Regina uttered in frustration, then looked towards Rogers crossly before she turned away to leave the room again so she could join the Charmings downstairs.

"Don't either of you do anything just yet," the Savior sternly then said to both Rogers and to his daughter once she rose from the bed so she could join her parents as well. "Give us… a little time to try to think out a plan. Believe me… I want to save my husband as quickly as possible too. But I won't sacrifice either one of you to do it. Otherwise, him having gotten hurt will have been for nothing. Will you look after him for me for a few minutes?"

Alice immediately nodded as she replied, "Of course."

Emma smiled at them, then sadly glanced down at the man she loved once more until she reluctantly released hold of his hand, then finally left the room so she could join her parents and the others. When she walked into the living room, Sir Henry was already there with Mr. Smee and she was then surprised to see Ella and Lucy once again standing with Henry, who was holding Hope in his arms while he struggled to stop his baby sister from crying.

When her mother walked into the room, Emma gently took Hope from him so she could try to soothe her, as Snow spoke to her daughter worryingly saying, "Henry called me and your father to let us know what's happened. Oh Emma… how's Killian?"

"He isn't good," the Savior dismally responded, while she kept her eyes down on her daughter and began to rock her. "This witch who's haunted Rogers and Alice for all these years poisoned him somehow. Because we can't heal him, we have to figure out some way to convince her to save him. A way that won't involve either of them having to sacrifice themselves or their freedom."

"We don't know much about this… Mother Gothel, aside from what Rogers, Henry, and Regina have told us about her," David reluctantly answered sternly while he looked between his grandson and the Good Queen. "But it sounds like convincing her to save Hook is going to take creative planning."

Emma let out a frustrated sigh while she continued to try to soothe her daughter, who was refusing to let up, then she replied tiredly, "I'm open to any ideas. But we have to hurry. I'm not sure how long Killian has. He's really ill and the poison's only continuing to spread. Not to mention that the wound itself is deep and he's losing blood."

Regina crossed her arms before she answered, "Right now… the only plan we have is Rogers' idea to have Blue and the other fairies cast the same spell they enchanted over Rumplestiltskin's cell, over Gothel's tower so we can imprison her. It's a sound idea, but in order to get her there and to convince her to save Hook, he has to pretend to be willing to turn himself over to her before that witch discovers she's become imprisoned. A lot could go wrong and Rogers will be without anyone with magic to back him up. And we haven't begun to work out the technicalities yet, so there's a good chance the enchantment could wind up trapping him inside the tower with her. For the most part, it's a horrible plan."

"I'm afraid that she started crying nearly an hour ago and I did all I could to try to help her so she would stop, but… I sense she's scared and nothing I've done has been enough to soothe her," Ella whispered to Emma when she stepped forward to try to pull up the blanket a little further despite her fussing.

"It's because her father's been hurt," the baby's mother fearfully replied to her. "She's always been sensitive to when either me or Killian are hurt, or sad, or… anything…"

When his daughter trailed off and he saw the look Emma showed whenever an idea has come to her, David looked at her sternly as he questioned, "Emma… what is it? Did you think of something?"

The Savior looked up at him in surprise once her idea dawned on her, and she shrugged as she responded, "I think so. We know Gothel wants Rogers and Alice. She wants to make sure that Alice can't ever imprison her again. And she hurt Killian instead trying to hurt her. Now she thinks she has the upper hand."

"But how exactly does that help us?" Sir Henry asked his mother in confusion.

"Hope senses whenever one of us are in pain and right now Killian is, but Regina… do you think you could cast a spell on Gothel that would force her to feel Killian's pain?" Emma then asked when she turned her head to look over at the Good Queen again. "Just to make her feel as he's feeling? If we can do that… surely even Gothel wouldn't be able to stand suffering from the same kind of agony Killian is for very long. And Killian's a hell of a fighter. A survivor, so she would be in for a hell of a day herself. Her poison won't actually kill her, but as far as she'll be concerned…"

Regina finally understood and finished for her friend, "…it just might. Or at the very least, she just might be willing to heal Hook in order to spare herself anymore pain. Morgause forced Alice's fears in her mind to trick her into freeing Gothel. I might be able to return the favor and give them both a dose of their own medicine. It's a good plan, but… in order to cast such a spell, we still have to confront them and we'll need something of theirs in order for it to work against them. At least of Gothel's if we want her to do as we need her to do to save Hook."

All of a sudden, Rogers spoke up from behind them after he had walked down to join them as he answered, "You can use the last petal of the golden flower which Gothel grew in her garden. She gave it to me in hope of luring me away from Alice the morning she was born so that I'd use it to get my revenge against Rumplestiltskin. But I refused. It wasn't powerful enough to help me free Alice from the tower, but it should be powerful enough to help you to cast your spell against her now so that you can hopefully save Killian. Fortunately, I've held onto it. But I know Gothel better than anyone. If she's going to be willing to save him, or even allow us to get anywhere close to her… she'll insist I come to her. It has to be me. Otherwise, she'll suffer so long as it means those we care about most do too. I promise I'm not willing to risk my life because I no longer care what happens to me, but because it's the right thing to do. Believe me… I have every reason to want to live. Let me help you save him."

"All right… then let's get started," the Good Queen finally replied again, as she looked at Rogers proudly while she smiled at him.

Inside Gothel's tower, within Rogers' appointed time…

Rogers stood once again inside the open room where he had lived the first twelve years of his daughter's life with her until the tree nymph had forced them apart, while he waited fretfully for the villainess to arrive. She was just about to be late, when at last she appeared before him in a black smoke cloud, then stood before him with a smug grin on her face.

"I must say, I'm surprised you were actually brave enough to come, Captain," she said to him softly and then conjured a vial he hoped contained the potion she spoke of that would save his friend's life into her hand, before she lifted it to show it to him. "So, just as I promised… my poison's antidote."

"How do I know it really is as you say it is?" the former detective firmly questioned her.

The witch smiled at him and then she responded coolly, "After all the years we've known one another, you still don't trust me enough to keep my word? I want both yours and your daughter's life once again in my hands, Hook. I don't care about what happens to some other version of you. However, I need to trust that you will keep your word to me as well. That you're truly willing to give yourself over to me, which is why…"

However, Rogers interrupted her, "Actually… I'm afraid I have to insist we amend our deal, Gothel."

Without hesitation, Hook from the Wish Realm raised a vial of his own which he had concealed within his prosthetic hand and from it, he suddenly blew flower dust from the petal which Regina and Zelena had gleamed from what remained of the golden flower in order to create the magic they could use against the villainess, into her face. Gothel snarled at him out of anger and struggled to wipe the dust off of her face, until she abruptly doubled over while she cried out in pain.

"What have you done to me?!" she furiously shouted at him once she lifted her head to look at him. "How… how is this even possible?"

"The pain you're now feeling isn't your own, but my husband's," the Savior answered for Rogers, when she then appeared in front of Gothel next to Killian's doppelganger once she transformed herself from the bird which had been sitting upon one of the beams above them since the pirate entered the room, while Regina also swiftly transformed herself from a mouse on the floor. "You hurt him… it's only right that you should suffer as painfully as he is. Hand over the antidote, or you'll continue to feel his pain. Killian's a survivor. How long can you withstand it?"

The villainess glared at Emma, until at last she swiftly tossed her the antidote, which Emma easily caught, then the tree nymph stood as tall as she was able while she replied, "Well played, Savior. I've heard of Saviors in the past, though you're nothing like I would have expected. And not so much because you're willing to darken your soul by hurting me just to save the man you love, though doing such isn't very Savior like. No… because you fell in love with another version of Captain Hook. No matter what he might have done to turn himself into a hero after centuries of villainy, it doesn't change what he's done. Just as Hook here is no better. But save him. I don't really care… your pirate isn't who I'm after. I may not have gotten what I wanted, but I am free and the day is young."

She looked over at Rogers again, then just before she vanished from before them, Gothel added darkly, "I'll be seeing you again soon, Hook."

"Do you really think this is the antidote like she said?" Emma then asked Regina when she turned her head to look between her and Rogers again.

"I don't trust much of anything she says, but I have a feeling she was telling the truth this time at least," the Queen curtly responded. "And about her threat towards Rogers. But you're the one who has the superpower, Emma. Do you think she's lying?"

The Savior sighed out of concern as she stared down at the potion within her hand, then finally she answered, "She was telling the truth about this potion being able to save him. Come on… let's get out of here."

As soon as Emma magicked herself, Rogers, and Regina from the witch's tower back to the Queen's home where their family and friends were waiting for them, she immediately ran upstairs to her son's old room to return to her husband's side and was grateful to find Alice still sitting with him, as well as her mother and father, while the women ministered to him.

Alice immediately stood up from the bed so that Emma could take her place beside Killian, then joined her father when he, Regina, and Henry walked into the room behind Emma moments later to watch on. David helped her to roll Killian over once again onto his back despite his wound and finally, Emma uncorked the vial, then gently lifted Killian's head up so she could help him to swallow the red liquid inside once she placed it up to his lips, as she coaxed him to drink it.

Once she was successful in helping him, the Savior continued to sit on the bed with the man she loved in her arms while she and everyone else waited worryingly for any sign that the antidote worked. At last, Killian began to stir before he slowly began to open his eyes. A tear slipped down her cheek when her husband finally awoke upon feeling relieved. And then he smiled up at her, until he struggled to sit up despite his wife's and his parents' pleas for him to stay still.

However, Regina caught a glimpse of his back again as he did so and she spoke swiftly saying, "Hold on, Emma. Just… hold him up."

"The poison may be leaving his body, but the wound hasn't healed yet," she continued once her friend did like she asked, then looked down and saw the wound between his shoulder blades for herself.

"It's all right… I can heal it," the Good Queen then stated again once she raised her hands to try to do so, and watched as the wound beneath his blood slowly began to close, and his blood coating it at last vanished as well.

When she finished, Killian pulled away from his wife just enough to try to move on his own and once he felt back to normal, he looked into his wife's eyes as he whispered, "I'm alright, Swan. The pain's gone. You saved me yet again. Thank you."

He then turned towards everyone else and added, "All of you. But how… What happened? Alice…"

"Thanks to you, I'm fine," the girl happily replied to him upon feeling relieved that they had saved him. "Gothel almost killed me today, but you took the blast meant for me. I'm so sorry you were hurt because that witch tricked me into freeing Gothel for her."

"Don't blame yourself for being unable to resist that kind of power," the man who looked like her father responded to her, as he looked between the young woman and Rogers too. "There was nothing you would have been able to do against that kind of dark magic. I've seen it before… from another villain I once allied myself with to try to get my revenge against Rumplestiltskin a long time ago. And tonight… I did what I did to save you because it was the right thing to do. You and your father have been separated long enough. When I was separated from Emma a few times because of other villains' cruelty and bitterness, each time I feared I would never see her again and it nearly destroyed me. Our circumstances have hardly been the same, but I can't imagine how you both survived several years apart and yet you have. So tonight… I saw a chance to keep that from happening to you both again, and I knew I had to protect you the only way I could."

Emma laid her head against her husband's chest between his neck and shoulder lovingly while she pulled him closer to her, then Rogers smiled at his daughter when Alice looked over at him again too, until he reached out his hand to Killian shake in gratitude as he said with sincerity, "Thank you, mate. For everything, both now and again for back when you and I first met."

Killian just nodded, then Henry carefully handed Hope down to her father, as he took his daughter into his left arm so he could keep his hand free to be able to caress her cheeks. The moment she sensed he was alright, the baby had at last stopped crying, then smiled up at her parents once they were looking down on her.

Once everyone's attentions fell on the baby, Regina finally laid her hand on Rogers' shoulder and gently pulled him away from the others, motioning to him to walk with her as they finally left the room where they could talk more privately, then when they were alone, she spoke quietly saying, "I'm happy everything's worked out. That Hook's okay and that both you and Alice are safe. But there's something else. I owe you… an apology. I shouldn't have run away from you yesterday like I did. It's just that I… I got scared and it's not a feeling I've ever been comfortable with showing to anyone."

"You needn't apologize, Your Majesty," he answered her just as quietly. "I spoke too soon. I never meant to frighten you. Believe me… I do understand. You've loved before and you lost them both. I didn't think I would ever get over Milah, but Alice changed my life for the better. And then you came along and continued to pull me out of my despair whenever I feared I'd never find my daughter, time and time again. That I would never be cured so I could be with her again. I won't push you into anything you don't want, but you deserved to know that my feelings for you have grown beyond admiration."

"I'd be lying if I said my feelings for you haven't," the Good Queen honestly admitted to him in reply at last. "And the truth is… Robin's death and Daniel's, isn't really why I was pushing you away. I want to find love again, Rogers. And for the first time in my life, I feel like I actually deserve it. I want to see where this between us goes, but I think I just needed to know that you weren't risking your life for Hook because you didn't care what happened to you anymore. Just before we confronted Gothel, you showed me you do want to live. You're a good man, Rogers. I'm ready…"

However, before she could go on, Rogers suddenly vanished within a cloud of smoke and Regina stared ahead of her in shock as she fearfully whispered, "Rogers?"

All of a sudden, Gothel's haunting voice spoke darkly through the mirror on the wall beside her saying, "I warned you I would have what I want, Your Majesty. Rogers' life is mine."

The End


	25. Thank You

Thank you to all who have read and have written reviews for my story! I am so grateful for your kindness. I'm deeply honored and I hope to hear from you all again. There will be plenty more stories to come. Best of wishes to you all!

Sincerely,

Genevieve Kelly


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